


A New Take To This

by Omicron_The_IceQueen



Category: Bionicle - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 21:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1363222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omicron_The_IceQueen/pseuds/Omicron_The_IceQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Old story that was co-written with In The Light. This was- at the time a crossover with her Universals saga and my Kora saga. This focused more on Nati exploring the Bionicle world on Aqua Magna, and her interactions with the Matoran while the Universal's plot unfolded in this world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was co-written with In The Light
> 
> To the fans of Light out there, I still do not know where she is, I love and miss her too but she has only sent me one email about 'taking a break' from the internet, fan fiction and rping. I do not know when or if she is coming back.
> 
> The Universals were In The Light's concept and [form] story. The Kora and the Bionicle world that this takes place in are my concepts.
> 
> Baring that in mind this is still my story as much as hers and in honestly I got tired of waiting so I'm posting this story up. I hope you enjoy the story as much as we did when we wrote this a few years ago.
> 
> There's only nine chapters of this.

 

Traveling from one dimension to another was never really expected, and the event knocked out the young human so that she was unconscious for most of the 'ride.' Quite suddenly she felt air flooding her lungs and she jerked back to reality with a long gasp. Blueish-grey eyes wide and blinking, the human female coughed a little and looked around her.

...this was not her backyard.

In fact she was in what looked like a...giant sun flower? No wait those were smaller flowers not seeds (thank god). But the human was in one of the great trees of the Le-Wahi forest.

The confused, and somewhat dazed, girl grunted and pulled herself up into a sitting position, eyes wide on realizing what she was on. "A tree," she mumbled. "It's a huge fricken' tree... uh...?" Turning, she glanced around, trying to figure out where she was. Trees like this did not grow in her backyard...

A humm came from above the human, from a horse sized monster, there was no other way to describe it. It was a metal, dragonfly thing with teeth and claws. It was perched on the branch above, looking around...or hunting very likely.

An 'eep!' escaped her throat in surprise, and shock, at the creature above her, making the human scramble on the branch a little before going still, eyes on it the entire time. Perhaps the monster wouldn't see her?

Her sound attracted the thing's attention, it turned and looked down, blinking somehow as it hummed. She gasped inwardly, as it was now pretty much looking at her. The human bit her lip, trying not to start rambling in a panic, and clenched her fist in case she would have to defend herself.

Four wings lifted up and fanned out, starting to hum as they hummed to life, but just as it screamed and launched, a blast of air from somewhere above. The demon-dragonfly screeched, dropping out of sight only to rush back up behind the human.

She gave a yelp and pitched forward, spying another branch below. The timing was almost uncanny, and the human found herself falling a split second before landing on her torso on the branch. She wheezed and clambered up, looking for the demonic dragonfly warily.

It landed over top of the human, the larger claws grabbing her arms as the relatively slender legs wrapped around her. With a grunt it lifted off- not as strong as it looked the thing was still trying.

She gave a shriek and immediately went into struggle-mode, twisting her arms the best she could to try and aim a disc at the thing without burning herself in the process. "Oy! Augh, put me down bug-face!"

The creature screamed back at her as the monster dropped into open air. Then it huffed and started muttering- turned it's head and the thing managed to pale. The trapped human continued struggling for a moment before noticing this and she too twisted her head, finally having to settle for looking back upside down instead. What was the demon dragonfly seeing? It squawked as something big rushed it from above, and the creature did the only sensible thing it could. Being young for it's kind, and thus not AS aggressive, it promptly dropped the organic thing and fled.

"...ACK!" The human let out a string of panicked gibberish, arms flailing as she fell...

THWACK!

...smack dab on another awaiting branch, clinging for all she was worth while trying to keep from yelling. That really hurt! "Ahhh... dang."

The branch she was on jerked and vibrated as something massive landed over her, the new being digging in the claws on his feet into the wood either side. A large hand hovering just above the young woman as the thing (Person?) gave a roar after the demon dragonfly.

' _What the...?_ ' Not saying this aloud, Nati scrambled, or tried to scramble at least, up onto the branch instead of hanging from her sore stomach area. Turning, a little nervously, she looked up at her apparent savior.

Well, she wasn't expecting this.

Vividly glowing eyes of several colors peered back down at her as the basic giant lifted his hand propping on a bent knee. Long blades- intricately made swords were hocked to it's forearms, giving him a winged look. He, for it looked male, was clad in green armor with glimpses of tan skin or hide here and there.

He tilted his head, blinking at Nati as if he was just as surprised to see her.

"H-holy crudnuggets-!" The young human wheezed, clambering backwards on the branch in shock. The... thing? Robot? Whatever it was, was huge and definitely had a powerful look to it. "Stay back!"

The green giant (oh look a pun!) cocked his head in a vaguely bird or reptile like way... and then crooned softly to her, a smile forming on it's odd mask like face. The girl had been about to warm up her power, but hesitated now. This... giant green person must have been what scared off that demonic bug thing. So, it had basically saved her, but what on God's green earth WAS it?

The bio-mechanical shifted on the branch, more kneeling on it now as he hummed and then gave a...chirp? Yep. "Mata Nui, kebro goona Ga-humino?" he said extending a hand and twitching his claw tipped fingers at her in a 'come here,' way.

...the thing had claws! And it could speak, if in a different language. So it was smart, right? She bit her lip and eyed the green robot-person warily. "You're not gonna... like, eat me or somethin', are you?"

He tilted his head, a clear, "Eh?" heard before he rumbled and twitched his fingers again. At the same time looking pointedly in the direction the monster-bug had fled.

"Oh, fine," she muttered, making her way closer to the huge green being, still wary of him pulling any tricks or moves on her.

He leaned forward, picking her up as he stood. Wrapping his arms around Nati, and with the size difference she was like a child in his arms. A broad smile- what could only be a smile, was flashed down at the human before he spook softly and boosted the girl up to his shoulder, down behind on his back she could see that the way the armor was, there were actually grips for hand and footholds.

Nati blinked at the grips before easing down and grasping them, shaking her head. This was just so odd. Then again, best just go with the flow. She leaned up a little and sideways, as if trying to see the being's face, or mask... whatever it was, "So now what, green bean?"

The being tilted his head, just able to see her out of the corner of one glowing eye, than he hummed. Hopping surprising lightness to another branch, and then another, climbing upwards. His movements were slow at first, letting Nati get the hang of how he move, but soon enough he picked up speed. Never once miss stepping or faltering, if anything this giant of a being had and in-human grace to him

Despite her confusion (you'd be confused too if you went from backyard to tree, to demonic bug, to giant green being all in under ten minutes) the human was actually in wonder at the being's unusual grace despite his largeness. ' _Weird... what the heck is he anyway?_ ' she frowned.

Suddenly, everything changed as the bio-mechanical being stood up, there was an explosion of life and color out shined the more brown shades of the giant tree close to the trunk. It was a jungle Nati was in, but it was massive, putting all of those of earth to shame not only in the colors but size. The smallest trees were the height of old redwoods and rising up to tower with sky-scrapers.

The 'robot' inhales deeply, the air thick with scents and tastes now that they were in the breeze, before letting out a warbling cry that was a throwback to his ancestors. It was a call of pure joy of being home again, no translation needed for that.

The human suddenly felt very, very... itsy bitsy. Just plain tiny compared to this mass of jungle life around them, not to mention the green weird robot person Nati was clinging to. She winced a little at the warble, startled slightly. That was weird too... the thing roared and had claws like an animal, yet it spoke earlier. She was really stumped with this guy, not to mention her surroundings.

"Cita Ga-humino." The being spoke, glancing back, lifting his hands into her line of sight and making a grasping motion. _Hold on_.

"Erh," she blinked and nodded quickly, tightening her grip. "Yeah, I'm gonna do that." Nati replied. Now why did she have the feeling things were about to get even more interesting?

The being smiled again before turning, launching into a run down the massive branch, and leaping off at the end. Nati yelped again during this, holding on as tight as she could while trying to get a good look at what the guy was up to. He fell several body lengths before landing on a natural code- made from a mix of alien vines, it was like grinding but with a lack of sparks.

That un-nerving grace and balance was expertly used here as he leapt for another of the massive trees, the deeper into the jungle region the thicker and more intertwined it became. The being had no trouble maneuvering, even picking up speed it seemed, but he always glanced back to be sure how Nati was doing.

The human seemed to be caught in both awe and wonder, and the need to scream at the brand new sensation of sailing from one tree to the other, with naught but grips in this person's back armor to hold onto. "Ohh, gosh... oh gosh, so high, wow..."

It would take a few minutes to realize, since the relatively smooth ride had gotten the human used to the being. But there was a faint glow from the mask like face, and the being himself had since pulled his arms back tilting them just right so the ends of the blades attached to his forearms were toughing his hips.

Then all at once it would click, they were in open air, gliding along a warm air current.

Nati gave a gasp-like squeak and would have been humiliated at the sound if not for the fact that... well, they were IN OPEN AIR. Only once had she ever gone flying, and she didn't even recall the event. More or less had been strapped down by a seatbelt probably, this though was so much different than a plane ride, there was the feelings of exhilaration, freedom and yes a little bit of fear.

Eye wide as they glided on the air current, Nati noticed how easily this oversized robot-being was handling the flight. As if he had done it before, or many, many times, or was simply born to do it.

A few moments later as they wove between the massive branches of one of the greater trees, there were scattered hut/cabins. They became more in number but soon it was clear that many of these buildings weren't in the best of shape. From being half destroyed to being taken apart to the 'bare bones' of the structures.

There had once been many boardwalks crisscrossing around and once connecting all the buildings, now there were just rims as well. The whole thing gave the impression of a ghost town.

The human stared at the buildings in the tree with awed interest and curiosity. Strange, why would someone put all of these up in a tree? And why were most of them destroyed so much? "What happened?" she wondered aloud, not expecting to get an answer that she could understand.

The biomechanical male glanced back at her with a reassuring humm as he flew, seeming to know just where he was going. Though there was a soft sound of sadness as he passed over this place. Obviously this destroyed place meant something to him, she realized. But wait, there were tons of the buildings... did that mean there were more giant robot-like beings too?

But no, the buildings were more her size then his, as they swung in close. He flipped his blades from hands on to his forearms again, dropping from the air and attached himself to the trunk. This was a reason he had sharp claws as well claws on his feet. Digging into the wood and letting him stay in place as his chest expanded and fell as he... Well, not quite panting but still taking deep breaths as he started to climb up.

"So, now we're goin' up?" Nati remarked aloud, turning and looking over her shoulder and down... maybe that's not such a good idea after all. She quickly redirected her attention to 'up' instead.

The being said something in that other langue as he continued up, snaring a hand on hanging vines that could support him he swung in a long ark to a branch he was just able to crouch on. Leaning forward the being tilted his head and shoulders down enough that Nati would see over him across open air to another set of two sky-scraper trees.

"It's like, tree city or something." she remarked to herself quietly, in amazement, blinking her grey-blue eyes.

It was half way up and on the two trees, connected by any number of different types of bridges from vines, ladders, nets and boardwalks. Compared to the ruins of the old village, this place was as vibrant as the green being that now launched himself into the air again, "Le-Koro!"

"Oy!" Nati yelped when he did this, gripping onto his back armor once again. She was surprised she hadn't lost her lunch yet from all of this... 'excitement' for lack of a better word. "What's a Le-Koro?"

The being jerked his head at the tree bound village ahead of them, "Koro."

Nati tipped her head for a moment. "What... the buildings are a Koro?" That word must have meant something like neighborhood or village.

The being glided in, lifting up as his mask glowed again before landing on one of the wide platforms scattered in the tree-top town/village. Seeing that they were no longer in open air, or balancing on a tree branch made Nati sigh inwardly, now to get down... she shifted around a little, trying to find an easy route without falling from his height and breaking a few bones in the process.

That was solved for her as the being reached behind him, hocking his claws on her shirt to drag Nati up, shifted to get a grip and pulled her over his shoulder and into his arms. The human had winced a little when the claws got involved-they were rather large after all!-and blinked now from her new position. It certainly beat hanging on for dear life on the being's back.

She looked up at offered a small, grateful smile. Nati got a flashed grinned back...and a wink as the being moved, walking at an easy pace in the quite village.

It just winked, really...? She blinked, thinking of something. It wasn't really acting all wary of her, or surprised at seeing something of no relation to its own species.

Odd...

Nati was lifted and then placed down on her own feet. Right across from her was another very surprised biomechanical being. Only he was smaller, her sized, hunched slightly in age and a darker green in color. It was sitting in what looked like a rocking chair with a staff over his lap and a cup in his hands. He also looked like he had been napping or basking in the sun.

"Uhum," Okay first off, she was glad that THIS one wasn't massive in height nor did he appear to have any weapons built onto his frame... although that staff could count for something maybe. Blinking awkwardly, Nati waved a hand weakly, "Hiya."

Red and orange eyes blinked a few more times before the elder sighed, looking regretfully at its cup. Downing that far faster then he wanted he heaved himself up, searching under the rob like fabric over his shoulders and coming out with something he'd learned to keep with him at all times now.

Nati couldn't help but look at the elder, he was obviously an elder, with slight fascination. Beings like this guy existed? Not to mention the even bigger one that brought her here...

The elder motioned for Nati to come closer to him, not speaking yet other than some barely heard mumblings. The human teen stepped closer, uncertainly. What did the guy want anyway? With a hand on her shoulder he guided her to dip her head and put what looked like a stone medallion with a leather braided strap over Nati's head. He stepped back, "There, better?"

She blinked. "What the...?" She pulled at the strap and looked at the stone before it seemed to click in her mind, "Um... yeah. Thank you."

"Translations stones are very helpful," the elder chirped with amusement, "Are you alright young one?"

"I found the little Ga-gi near the hive." A deeper voice spoke from behind, the giant had shifted quietly so he was lounging stretched out on his side.

"Ga... what?" Nati blinked, tipping her head slightly, her tight ponytail in need of re-fixing after the events at this 'hive' the bigger guy spoke of.

The elder shook his head, waving the bigger being off, "Toa Lewa..."

"Sorryoops," Lewa ducked his head in apology but the playful look he flashed at Nati said it wasn't really sorry for confusing her.

She blinked at his use of two words put together before turning back to the shorter dude. "Umm... could you tell me where I am?"

"You are in the homeKoro of the people of air." The ender said motioning around them, and then smiled himself, "We are on the island of Mata Nui. Though this wiseold Turaga didn't expect to see another human in his lifetime..."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting to wake up on a tree branch with a demon dragonfly trying to eat me," Nati replied, a little nervously. Seriously, this guy... what in the world was he? And the other one, 'Toa Lewa' too. She was really confused.

The elder blinked again, "Dragon- Oh! A darkbad Rama... Here, come sit with Turaga Matau and explain what has happen to you, and I will sharetell our story as well."


	2. Chapter 2

Nati had a thoughtful look on her face where she sat, currently letting the information on 'Bionicle' settle in her brain. Plus the fact that this was, obviously, not an island on her home planet either, she had told this Turaga Matau person about how she had ended up here, but did not know why.

"The great spirit has an odd way of showing our destinies." The Turaga said after a bit, "You will find out the reason for your waytraveling young brightheart." He reached over and patted Nati's closer knee.

She blew mildly at her bangs before brushing them aside. "So, a Toa is some sort of protector given a power to protect the people, right?"

"Toa and Kora," The elder nodded, "They are the living elementals."

"Living elementals... wow." the human uttered to herself.

Matau chuckled, smiling for it _was_ an amazing concept, even for the Bionicle sometimes, "Yes, you have already met the Toa of Air." He motioned upwards, since they were outside and Lewa was laid sprawled in a vine made hammock to listen in.

She tilted her head to glance at the Toa. Nati just couldn't help but blurt the one line that had been going through her head since she saw him. "...good lord, he's so huge!"

"Toahearo Lewa isn't the biggest of the Nuva," Matau said, unable to help but tease the human seeing her reaction.

"He's not?" she asked in disbelief, eyes wider. "Dude... giants really do exist."

"Onua and Pohatu are softhearted little one." Lewa called down with a chuckle, "And always seewatch where they step."

She blinked, "D'oh, what? They're... THAT big...?" Before this day the only really tall being she had ever seen was someone about seven feet tall in a food court.

Matau shook his head at the Toa before leaning over and patted Nati on the knee again, "Don't evermind Lewa, now, do you know why you came to our islandhome?"

She hummed a little bit with a frown, "Umm... not exactly." Her tone hinted that she knew something however.

The elder arched an eye ridge, giving the human a long look. He was used to youth attempted to hide things, more so his sometime overly trouble making villagers. "Hmm, well you can rest here in Le-Koro until the Great Spirit gives you clearsight."

Nati offered a grateful smile at the Turaga. "Thanks, I appreciate that. By the way, how big is this island anyhow?"

"Very. Big." Turaga Matau said after a moment, chuckling, "We are strong at six homekoros, with ToaHeroes and Korasisters protecting us from the Makuta."

Nati seemed to think about this for a moment, or rather about the Makuta who seemed to be the enemy in this world. "What's the deal with this... Makuta person?"

"That is a long darksad story," Matau sighed, he had already told the story of Mata Nui. "Not for spoiling brighthope young minds this early." He was looking to the side pointedly at no less than four child size Bionicle that were watching Nati intently.

The human blinked mildly and followed his glance, seeing the foursome nearby. Though she wondered if the Makuta had anything to do with the Etchroi, she understood why the Turaga wasn't saying much in front of the younger ones. She sighed before smiling in a friendly way at them.

Three ducked out if sight when they realized that she had spotted them, the fourth flailed and then was pulled out of sight as well. There was a pause before the four peeked out from just a little to the right in a differnt spot. Amused, Nati gave a grin and lifted a hand, waving at them this time. She wasn't too sure about why she seemed to have caught their attention, Turaga Matau had said something about seeing humans before, but she didn't seem to really mind. They were kinda funny actually.

"Ata!" Turaga Matau called out to them, rapping his staff on the ground for the children's attention, "Go quickfind Kren!"

"Kren?" Nati echoed, curiously, tilting her head slightly.

"He is a strongbrave Le-Matoran," The elder said, "One of our airflying pilots and pathfinder." And more importantly, he had both that easy personality that was attracted others to him as well as being a full Le-Koro Guard member.

"Ohh, okay." Nati gave a slight nod, though the use of smashing two words together still needed some getting used to.

Lewa rolled and dropped out of his spot when the childern came back with one of the taller of the Le-Matoran that Nati would meet. He was over the average five feet, with that strong, lean build of the Le-Koroian warrior, but his masked face looked like he was always in a good mood. Including how he stepped lightly fallowing the four youngsters.

' _Certainly looks friendly enough_ ,' the human thought, getting up from her seat as they came near.

The kids sprinted off to the side where Lewa was just shifting from kneeling to sitting. Grinning broadly he happily let the young Matoran- now that they were out in the open it was easy to see three were mostly green and the fourth blue, and more femmine looking- climb up on and over him. Even swooping one up for a good cuddle and to lightly tap his mask to the much smaller one, getting a giggle and hum from the little girl.

Nati couldn't help but think how cute the scene was. After all, Lewa was just... _huge_ to begin with, and yet he was so gentle with the little children.

"Hightgood greetings wiseold Matau!" Kren called as he bounced over, sweeping a quick bow to the elder, his eyes bright with interest as he looked at the human, "Is this another Korasister?"

"Ah, no," Nati answered instead, shifting her weight with a pleasant smile on her face. "My name's Nati."

Kren cocked his head to one side and then the other- a smaller version of what Lewa had done after saving her. It had that vague bird or reptile like way to it, but also keen intelligence. And then the grinning Matoran hopped closer and pulled Nati into a hug that lifted her off her feet, but she could still breath, "Highgood greatings then strangwierd Ga-sister!"

"Huoof-!" Nati wheezed in surprise, not expecting the gesture, and that she couldn't feel the floor beneath her feet anymore. These guys were strong. "Nice to meet you too," she replied with a grin.

She was set down, Kren holding her arms until he was sure of her balance before looking back to the elder, "Let me guess wiseold Turaga, you want me to be this waytravler's pathfinder?"

Matau nodded, "We all know there are dangers as much as wonders on our islandhome. You will stand as a MatoranHero for Nati."

Kren brighten, giving the girl a sideways look that was half trouble maker.

She noticed this and almost smirked but instead asked, "I don't quite understand, though."

"That Ramma you met Natifriend, was only a youngsmall thing," Lewa said, making a motion of compressing space between his hands, "There are many Rahi on the homeisland."

"Kren will keep you eversafe." Matau nodded as he retook his formal seat from before, unable to help the sigh that he was in a far more comfortable spot for his aging body.

"Ah," Nati nodded, though she wondered if that was wholly necessary. Give or take, she knew self defense along with her power, but it was probably wise in the end to have Kren too. She didn't really know a thing about what else was on the island after all.

The Le-Matoran reached over to wrap an arm around Nati's back, tugging her closer to him and turning with him away, "Come Natifriend, lets get some sweetgood food for the morningmeal! ...the dawnlife little ones took me from mine." he added in a softer voice as they left.

"Those kids?" she said, glancing over her shoulder whilst wondering about this Kren person who, apparently, was going to 'keep her safe.' Already she was noting how the people-Matoran? Bionicle?-here were a lot closer with others, even strangers like her.

"Yep, never let this Matoran eat in peace!" The male laughed, reaching up to twist off first one then a second purple colored fruit off a hanging vine. Like a plum almost but was thrice as big. Kren tossed one lightly to Nati, "Here, quicktry this."

She caught it lightly and peered at it for a moment. Nati cocked her head a little. "What's it called?" she asked after taking a bite of the fruit.

"Bitu," Kren said, "It's Kora Lee's favored, GaSisters love it too!" He grinned, having used that information well to his advantage many a time.

"Looks like a giant plum," Nati commented, looking her fruit over with a grin.

Kren shrugged, taking a careful bite so not to lose the juice from the bitu fruit. He'd heard the term 'plum' before but at the moment he couldn't remember were.

"So," Nati started after a few minutes of eating the fruit. "Think I'll get to meet these Kora I keep hearin' about?"

"More than likely," Kren nodded, looking around and heading to a vine-rope ladder that was against the trunk of the giant mother tree that housed half of Le-Koro. "KoraSister Lee is in Ta-Koro right now."

The human followed him. "And Ta-Koro is of... which element was it, fire?"

Kren nodded, "Yes. Ta, fire. Ga, water. Onu, earth. Po, stone. Le, air. And Ko is ice." he listed off the main six elements, flipping up seeds from his fruit up into the air and juggling them as he waited on the next level. Once Nati was near enough he tossed the seeds to the bark and offered a hand.

The young human gratefully accepted the hand up having reached the end of the ladder. So far she was still amazed at Le-Koro's jungle beauty... and how big the trees were.

Kren easily lifted Nati up to the next level, he stretched and flopped down in a seat carved into the wood of the branch itself. It would be big enough for the two of them... In fact behind Kren was the entrance of one of those cabins that the girl would have seen coming into the village. Half dug in the trunk, partly built out. From the looks of it, this very well may be the Matoran's home, including two bowls set out, one piled with assorted fruits, and the other with what looked liked different types of jerky.

"This is so cool," Nati remarked once she sat down on the branch as well, her eyes taking in the little, unique cabin and the view of the village around them as well. "Now that's a treehouse."

The Le-Matoran blinked and then burst out laughing, "It's an uptree village! What better place for the Koro of air?"

"There's nothing close to this back home." Nati smiled. "And the trees wouldn't be big enough to house an entire village."

"A sorrybad shame that is," Kren considered, shaking his masked head before tossing a berry up and catching it easily to munch on, "What is your homeKoro like Natifriend?"

"My house is in a pretty spacey part of the country," she recalled, her gaze on the leaves and branches overhead. "Lots of wooded area, and a few caves here an' there. Better than a big city."

"From what I heardtold," Kren said after a few thoughtful moments, "I prefer my homeKoro to the big Metru-Cities. No trees, and no highflying Gakos!"

"And cities are crowded," Nati added after realizing that this place had a city somewhere too.

"The homeKoros are just right." The Le-Matoran pilot said, nodding in agreement of his words.

"Well, I hope to see more of them," Nati commented. "This place is already so much more different than home."

"Would you want the sightsee-explore?" Kren perked up a bit.

She shrugged with a smile, "Anything really. What do you think are the best sights?"

"In Le-Koro?" Kren made a thoughtful sound as he considered, and then looked up, "The Suva and Le-Kini, the temples of air and for our Toahero."

"Air needs a temple?" Nati wondered to herself. She wasn't used to the elements being treated with that much respect as they apparently were here.

"We honor the elements, and," the male Matoran grinned at Nati, "Not ever Koro can have a hugebig Kini Nui." He reached over and turned the humans head a little, pointing out to the far distance. They could just barely see the top of the Great Temple of the island, to be seen from this distance it had to be massive. "We honor the Great Spirit, Mata Nui in the Le-Kini as well."

Nati blinked on catching sight of the top of what appeared to be another temple. A BIG one at that. "Whoa," she remarked. "That looks big."

"Very," Kren agreed, waving his arms wide, "Big enough to fit a homeKoro inside!" he paused and added, "Our stonebashing brothers of the desert had to stay there once, the whole village."

She perked up a little and, after realizing what he meant by stonebashing, wondered what could have caused an entire village to have to live in a temple. "Oh? Why, what happened?"

Kren made a face and then shivered, his bio-mechanical body making soft sounds as he did so, "Scarybad times, when the Bhorok monsters of the DarkMakuta. The horridbugs invaded the island," Kren trailed off, reaching up to rub a hand over his masked face- it still gave him a smiling cheerful look even with his current mood. "They leveled the old Le-Koro, and Po-Koro."

The human blinked, recalling the destroyed and abandoned hut-like buildings while on Toa Lewa's back. "So that's what happened," she said softly. "What happened to the... Bohrok?"

"The Toaheroes put their queens to deepsleep," Kren said after giving himself another shake to rid himself of his memories. "The hugebig swarms retreated back to their homenests to deepsleep as well."

"Mm." Nati gave a nod. "Well, that's good..." She wasn't sure how she's handle being in this place if monstrous biomechanical bugs were swarming around.

"Want to sightsee a Bhorok?" Kren asked suddenly, grinning at the human.

Nati blinked. "Um... sure. I guess. Why not?"

"All done?" Kren motioned to the food, taking a few pieces of jerky for himself. If he was going to be running around after this human for who knows how long- he had watched over the Kora of air before she started growing. So Kren knew he was going to need the energy.

"Yup!" the human nodded. "Let's go see this bug-thing you're talkin' about."


	3. Chapter 3

Kren was lounging, there was no other way to say it, he was stretched out to fill on one side of the elevator's bench like seats. He was grinning at the human as they rode down from the tree-top village to the ground level of the jungle. "Gakoriding would have been evermore quick."

Nati was smiling, half in amusement at the guy's lounging in an elevator of all places. She, for her part, was just sitting there. "Yeah, well, I dunno about riding one just yet." she admitted.

"Gakos are safe," Kren pointed out, he finally sat up, and in the Le-Matoran way as Nati would find he climbed out the wide window of the pod-elevator, snatching a wide yellow flower growing in a patch on the tree trunk. He swung back in, "Just griptight!"

The human chuckled. "That's always the key to those kinds of things, isn't it?"

Kren bobbed his head in a nod, "Yep!" He leaned over and put the flower into Nati's hair, behind her ear. Was the Bionicle was actually flirting with her?

Nati raised an eyebrow before reaching back and touching the back of the flower. 'Okaaay,' she said to herself. 'That was different.'

The Le-Matoran winked one of his multi-colored eyes at here before leaning back against the edge of the open windows. He smiled as he tilted his hand back in the sun light that filtered through the trees, "You need to relax Natifriend."

She wanted to retort something along the lines of 'you try relaxing when you've been thrown into a completely different world in the last hour with no idea why' but instead, kept on the cool side. "Well, I'm trying at least."

Kren leaned back forward again, waving a finger at the human, "You have a saddarken heartlight," His expression soften before coming over to sit by Nati, and pulled her in to a strong hug. It was that reassuring kind you got from a father, uncle, or big brother, it was a universal gesture it seemed, and Kren had been there more than Toa Lewa or Turaga Matau when the young Kora of air had first come to the island. So he knew humans liked hugs.

The human Universal stiffened slightly in surprise at first, before her form relaxed from the embrace. Despite the fact that she hadn't known the Matoran for very long, she didn't find this uncomfortable, but assuring. She wasn't going to truly be alone while on this island.

The pilot held her close for another few long moments before leaned back enough to look down at her, smiling, "Don't worry Natifriend, I will be your MatoranHero for however long you need a goodfriend and wayfinder."

"Thanks," she offered in reply with a small smile. What was amazing was that if someone like him were to show up in the human world, no doubt he wouldn't be treated this way at all. And yet the people here were so kind to strangers.

Kren winked again, and turned Nati's head to look out the nearest window. He leaned over and slowly pulled the break, slowing the lift down so when they stopped in a clear patch. They were still high enough that it gave Nati a clear view of this section of the jungle, "Looksee! There..." Kren pointed at another tree, "That is Toahero Lewa's Suva."

The human squinted a little bit before her gaze locked on it. She grinned. "Cool!"

"Maybe sometime you can see it," Kren offered, and then puffed up in pride as he started the lift again. "I helped buildmake it nearly a thousand years ago!"

Nati blinked and looked at him. "S-Say what? That long ago?" Seriously, how old was he?

Kren tilted his head, "Yes?"

"Geez... that's a long time!" the human exclaimed.

The Le-Matoran held out a hand flat, tilting it back and forth in the 'so-so' motion, "I'm older than that." He couldn't remember all of his life before the first dark time- though he knew he had always been a pilot.

"Whoa," Nati grinned nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "That's such a big age difference than it is for me."

"Oh?" Kren smiled, and something about him said that he knew the age diferances between them.

"Yes... though something tells me you knew that already." Nati replied.

"You are still bighthope young Natifriend," Kren chuckled as he reached over the short distance to playfully swiped a hand over her head, the Bionicle equivalent of human ruffling the hair of another.

The human smiled and ducked slightly from his hand, though not escaping it really.

Kren laughed at her actions before sitting back down, "Well, when ever your ready Ga-gi, you can tell Krenfriend here what is badtrubling your heartlight." He said, looking out of the window to judge the distance to the ground, and to keep his words from pressuring the human as they descended once more.

Nati smiled faintly, though it more of a grim look than anything else. One of the reasons she might very be here was because of the Etchroi. They still had to be defeated, and had succeeded in vanishing back home. Who knew where they might be now?

Kren stood as they neared the ground, hands on the controls and head out side the window. The elevator shuttered as it docked into the ground system before a few more Le-Matoran form seemed to materialize out of the ground greenery, "Highgood greetings brothers!"

"Highgood greatings Krenbrother!" Was the response, along with some keen interest in Nati as the Kren pushed her lightly ahead of him. The other Matoran weren't as tall as the pilot, more near the human's size.

Nati made her way off of the elevator, glancing around the surroundings for a moment before looking back to the few more Le-Matoran. She gave a friendly smile and waved. Several of the Le-Matoran waved back, and she could catch some whispers among the guards- for unlike those above these males were all armed and in defensive positions around the elevators. But she could hear soft but hopeful questions among them if they had another Kora. Kren didn't give Nati much time to dwell, leading her into the jungle that unlike rainforests on Each, wasn't bare undergrowth.

The human followed alongside Kren eagerly, after all, the thought of possibly losing your way without a guide wasn't a good one. And she remarked to herself inwardly, on how it was amazing that she hadn't lost her sandals after the events of this day.

Kren gave the human a sidelong look, taking in her gate, "Are you alright Natifriend?"

"Yeah, just thinkin' about some things." Nati answered with a small smile.

The Le-Matoran tilted his head, silently encouraging her to go on as he walked. The male faulted as he split his attention to see where he was walking and not run into a large root.

"Well, a lot of things," she continued, choosing her words carefully, still unsure about saying anything about being a Universal or the Etchroi. "I sure wish I knew why I was sent here."

"You will find out Ga-gi," Kren assured, confident in that at least as he looked up, scanning above them as well as around for any dangers.

She glanced at him before mildly sighing and looking around the vast jungle again, faintly humming a tune to herself as they walked. If her family was panicking back home, she didn't know how to explain this one...

"Almost there!" Kren said as he stepped _off_ the semi-set path they'd been on. Nati quickly followed him off the path. That's right, they were going to see a Bhorok weren't they?

Kren stopped, holding a hand out to the girl to stop as well. His other hand starting to reach back over his shoulder, but hesitating before dipping into subspace. The Matoran's manor changed, he was even more alert, and if one was to really look, it was almost like Lewa, in how he moved. Kren, for all his happy relaxed ways, was still a Le-Matoran pilot and Guard member.

The human was silent as she watched, glancing around them with her eyes, trying to spot whatever might have put the Matoran on alert. Out of habit, her palms grew slightly hot, plasma on the ready for whatever might happen. He backed up to the human, holding two fingers over his mouth in a 'quite' motion, shooing Nati to a large root and motioning her to climb up it. He kept looking to a curtain spot, but Kren wasn't panicked at least.

Nati looked around again, worriedly as she made her way over to the tree root and scrambled up as best as she could, though she wasn't very far from the ground. What was it that he was so alert about?

The Le-Matoran pulled himself up beside her, making sure Nati was sitting, "Stay everystill." He warned, watching the spot with a hand on the human's back for reassurance. Then the Rahi came, big, brown and tan in color, the bear like creature lumbered out of the underbrush. It blinked at the two as smaller forms that had to be cubs came tumbling out and between the mother's legs.

The young human gasped softly at the sight of the creature, in wonder, and slight fear the thing had claws after all. The cubs were just another reason to get out of the way, if this creature was anything like mother bears at home when it came to their cubs.

"Ashbeer," Kren said, voice still low, but enough that the creature looked over. The Le-Matoran hummed softly, and then the hum lifted to a soft song of greeting and peace. Since the two were up and sitting, with no visible weapons, the Rahi shook itself, grunted and continued on, her cubs romping gleefully after.

"Cool," Nati said under her breath, leaning slightly to watch the ashbear and her young go until they had vanished from sight. Not exactly used to trees or tree roots, the human seemed to have forgotten to keep a grip, and with a small cry of surprise she tumbled forward to the ground with a lack of grace, landing in a heap.

A chuckle came from above her head, but at least Kren wasn't really laughing at her, "Gracefulsmooth."

"Not nearly," Nati smirked with a laugh at herself, pushing up onto her hands and knees before standing upright again.

Kren slid down the root, smiling and shaking his head, "Come Natifriend, it's not too far."

She grinned back and followed him again, dusting off her already torn jeans, and hands of leaves and dirt.

The Matoran ginned in that slightly odd Bionicle way before taking the lead again- away from the ash beer thankfully. He soon stopped in another mini clearing, facing a wall of ferns before pulling Nati closer, and to it. "Here Natifriend. Just walkstep through here!"

"Through the ferns...?" Nati blinked before shrugging. Well, he knew everything about this place, right? The human made her way forward and walked through the wall of the plants, expecting Kren to follow.

The Matoran made no move at first, giving Nati time to get ahead of him. Kren flashed a trublemaker's grin before vanishing silently into the fern maze. He had said to walk in, and as long as the human kept going straight she would soon pull a few ferns down and find herself staring right into the crystal eye and metal tusks of a monster that put that demonic dragonfly to shame.

Nati grunted as she kept on pushing and yanking ferns out of the way as she walked, almost tripping, nearly losing a flipflop, and getting a fresh set of cuts on her shoulder from thorns. "Kren?" Finally she seemed to have found the end... maybe? When she pulled down some ferns she froze stiff at the sight of a metallic monster she hadn't been expecting to see, her eyes wide.

It looked to be crouching, but relatively short legs were stretched out behind it, it had 'hands' that were more disk like but pattered shields that rested on the ground. The monster has limbs, legs and arms but it wasn't really bipedal like human or Matoran. The body was more rounded and the 'head' was almost too big, it too also looked like shield, sloping back and was very wide.

It had some kind of black marking on it with the silvery background making the marking stand out, as well as being a bit worst for ware with some small grooves and nicks here and there. On the lower most portions of the head were sizable tusks that were larger then a man's forearm and looked like the mouth could clamp down on and break Lewa's own armored wrist at the least.

One thing was for sure; this oversized bug-like monster was way more freaky than the demon dragonfly had EVER been. Yelping, the human stumbled back, since she had taken in the thing's appearance in a half second after parting the ferns, startled very much, and nearly fell over again.

Kren's voice laughed, and the monster's shield like head moved before the Le-Matoran poked his own over the top. Grinning and crossing his arms over the edge of the Bhorok's head, "Got ya." He said, proudly mimicking the accent of Kora Tala.

"D-D-!..." Nati panted, hand over her thumping heart in her chest, eyes wide before she frowned. "Don't you EVER do that agagin, man!"

"Matoran!" Kren cheerfully called back, "Now you know what to run everquick from."

"Yeah, 'cause you people are nuts," she replied, but her tone was playful as well since it was a joke.

The pilot rolled his multi-colored eyes, shifting and pushing now again the bug's head, forcing the head shield of the Bhorok. It tilted forward and dropped open. "These all are deaddark though." He motioned to the empty Krana spot and then behind him.

Nati came forward now and leaned up to get a good look for herself. "So, how is it dead exactly?" she asked. The thing seemed very different from these Bionicle people. There wasn't much organic parts she noticed.

"The darkbad Krana," Kren leaned down tapping the place the organic Kanohi like mask would rest in the harness of metal, "Would sit here, and control the mechanical shell."

"Oh." Nati grimaced, not really wishing to know what a Krana might be. "So the way to stop these Bohrok were to take out the Krana?"

"Yep... but you have to be evercareful not to let it on you," Kren shook himself to hide a shiver from a memory, before he helped Nati climb up the Bhorok. He looked around at the others that were still and silent in the fern meadows, a good 34 at least. The clusters looked like they had been fighting something in the middle of each cluster

Nati perched on the Bohrok with her Matoran friend as she looked around the many other stilled creatures in the meadow of ferns. One could just imagine the damage they could bring when alive. She frowned a little and looked at Kren. "What happens if a krana gets on a person?"

"You are lost in the dark," Kren said after a long minute, "While your heartlight and mind are lost, the Krana has control over your body."

The human's eyes widened for a moment and she grimaced. "Oh geez... sorry I asked. That sounds really bad. I didn't think stuff like that was possible."

The Le-Matoran chuckled, lightly swiping a hand over Nati's head, "You will find many things here, Natifriend, that are both scarybad, and wonderful with brighthope. This is Mata Nui after all."

"Sounds like a party," she mumbled sarcastically, but not in a really bad way. More like nervousness instead. The young human tipped her head a little. "So, what are these other Toa like?" She couldn't seem to stop asking questions.

Kren tapped his mask thoughtfully, "The Toaheros are like their elements. You metsaw Lewa, he is kind and everquick, slow to anger like greatpretty Gali, but he can make a scarybad storm when the Makuta's shadows does anger him."

"Hope I can meet them all while I'm here," Nati remarked, glancing upward at the canopy of trees and vines above them.

"Maybe you will Natifriend," Kren smiled again, shifting on his spot on the Bohrak, "You shouldn't go to Ta-Wahi though without the healing silverwater."

"Silver... water?" the human repeated, blinking her eyes as she shifted to letting her legs dangle off the Bohrok instead of crouching.

"Healing water," Kren explained, he tapped his chest under his heart light and then carefully tapping his fingers on Nati's back on each side over where her lungs would be. "Matoran have a little bit, enough for us to survive some of the badick air that comes from an angryspitting volcano... I don't think you have that kind of silverwater filter Natifriend."

"Nope, I don't," Nati shook her head. She ran a hand over her pulled back hair. "Wow, I got a lot to learn about here, don't I?"

"Yep! But don't stressworry, it's like any homeplace one has to learn about." Kren assured.

"I guess so," Nati glanced around for a moment before turning back, "Now where to?"

"Anywhere!" The pilot announced, grinning and waving his arms to take in the whole island.

"Anywhere, huh?" she said with a mild sigh. "Well... what else is there to see around here then?"

"You want to see the old Koro?" Kren tilted his head, again had that vaguely bird or reptile like movements.

She shrugged. "I'm up for seeing anything on this island really. Maybe less, uh, monsters." she tapped the Bohrok they were sitting on to make her point.

The Le-Matoran nodded in understanding, scratching his Kanohi mask, "Would you want to eversee Ga-Koro?"

Recalling that Ga stood for water, and thus females as well, Nati smiled and nodded. "Yeah! Sounds cool."

"It would be easier to seekfind the path to the coast here in the homeWahi," Kren looked around and pointed off the proper direction that was in the coast.

"How far's Ga-Koro anyhow?" Nati wondered, looking in the direction he had pointed as she shifted again on the Bohrok.

"A goodlong day and a bit of eveningdark if we leave now-ish." Kren judged as he mentally plotted at the same time.

"Okay." she nodded. Nati gave a smile. "I don't care when we leave. I got nothin' else to do after all."

Kren smiled, sliding off the bohrak and offering his arms if she wanted to jump, "Well now you do!"

Nati grinned and nodded. "Yep, looks like it," she answered, before moving forward and jumping off the Bohrok.

The Le-Matoran easily caught her, playfully spinning Nati around before setting the human down. This time he did mess up her hair and fled into the ferns, laughing so she could fallow him. Which she did follow him, after shrieking slightly from the spin and messing of hair. Now she took off after the Matoran into the ferns as well.

The Matoran playfully popped out of the ferns to ruffle her hair again, "Have to be everquicker then that Natifriend!" and Kren was off again, partly playing, partly leading.


	4. Chapter 4

The jungle floor had turned rather abruptly into a swamp the closer they came to the coast; thankfully there were boardwalks up above the muck. There was also tree bound paths in the canopies, but there were many gaps that required Matoran strength to launch some distances and vine swing. Kren wasn't sure of Nati's limits and strengths yet, as she was a normal human as far as he knew and not a Kora, so he stuck to nearer ground level.

The Le-Matoran and human were currently taking an evening brake on the edge of where the swamp turned into another ecosystem. Mangroves as they would be called on earth, though like the rest of Le-Wahi the trees here were massive, far older than most back on earth. Yet like the mangroves Nati would know of, these trees stood up on their roots, leaving maze of spaces to explore by canoe or snorkeling.

Kren looked up, pausing his work with something in his lap, and scanning around for threats. Finding none he returned to his project, "You like the cra... fishdinner Natifriend?"

The human, who had been gazing around at all the trees and the giant roots, didn't realize he was talking to her. She blinked after a moment and turned. "Huh..? Oh, yeah." she grinned at him. "It was good."

"Better smoked," Kren said, poking the flat heat stone he'd used to cook the fish, not the best of ways but effective enough.

"I still say it was good," the girl replied with a shrug, watching him poke the heat stone.

Kren chuckled, finishing what he had been weaving and held up the pack and tested it before offering it to Nati, "For your collections." He grinned.

She accepted it and looked it over, tipping her head. She had never seen a woven piece of work before. Nati grinned back at him. "Cool! Thanks."

"Packs are helpful since I don't think you have subspace Ga-gi." Kren smiled, tapping Nati's back where the Bionicle subspace pockets were on Matoran and their guardians.

"Nope. I doesn't have that," the human agreed, flipping her new pack over. "It's a good idea, Kren. Thanks."

"Have something to put funnice things in." The Matoran nodded, as if collecting tidbits and goodies was perfectly normal after hoping dementions...and why not? Kren hopped up, stretched and put the heat stone back where he found it and clean up.

Nati blinked, thinking to herself about that. Wouldn't Max go wild if she brought back something from here? Maybe she could find something really interesting for him... The thought of her little brother stirred up a batch of homesickness inside the human, though she shoved it down as much as possible. If she were here for a reason, then she would have to stay until she found it... right?

"Back to the waypath!" Kren aroused once wrapping up the last bit of fish, "The Root Harbor should be close Natifriend."

"Okay." she nodded, and slipped her new pack into black on her back.

Kren reached over to take Nati's hand as they started off, his free hand coming up to put the left over fish in her pack for a snack later. Switching hands so they could walk more easily side by side, the Matoran headed off. The farther they went, the higher the board walk had to be to stay over most of the roots and away from the deepening waters. Kren would now and then peer down as if looking for something as much as he scanned above for threats, which was a lot.

"What other kinds of... Rahi, live here, on the island I mean." Nati asked out of the blue. "I already know about that ash bear and the demon dragonfly thing."

"Rama," Kren corrected the last part, then chuckled, "There's all kinds of Rahi that highfly, groundwalk, wetswim, crawlscuttle..." He slowed and tugged Nati to the edge of the boardwalk, though carefully knelt as there was no rails here. He pointed down at large biomechanical catfish-like creatures that had been fallowing their shadows with interest.

Knelling and looking downward as well, Nati followed his finger and spotted the new creatures. She blinked. "Neat... they look like catfish, or somethin' like that. What are they?"

"Wetswimmers?" Kren shrugged sheepishly, he didn't know every Rahi, "But they have teeth, so no swimming Natifriend."

"Heh, I wasn't gonna," she replied with a smirk.

"Good!" Kren nodded, and then gave the human a sheepish side long look, "This Matoranhero doesn't actually like swimming."

Nati chuckled slightly. "Really? Eh, no worries. I know a lot of people who can't swim."

"I'm a pilot," Kren shrugged, give him the open air over the open waters any day!

"Sweet." Nati commented, though she knew the pilots back home flew airplanes, not... well, birds. She then stood back up again. "So, how much longer till we get to Ga-Koro again?"

"Have to get to the harbor here, and boatrun around the coast to it." Kren said as he walked. "Sometime after dark I'd say. But the Ga-Matoran would know quickbetter once on the bigwet."

"'Bigwet' huh? Nice." the human replied, walking as well. "If only I brought my swimsuit," she joked.

"Swimsuit?" Kren asked tilting his head at the new term.

"What I would wear if I were to go swimming in the water." Nati explained to him, seeming to have forgotten than they probably didn't even know what clothes were for.

The Le-Matoran frowned, and arched up and eye ridge, trying to make sense of her words, or meaning behind them, "...wouldn't a suit weigh you down?"

"Not really. They're made to be sleek and form-fitting." she answered, "Really light, too."

She got a snort, Kren wasn't so sure still, but shrugged and then perked up at hearing laugher from just out of sight. It was female in tone and not too far away, "Ah! Looksee Natifriend, you can see some of the boats now." He pointed at the afts of a few canoes.

The whole swimsuit topic forgotten, Nati followed his finger with her eyes, and blinked, spotting the canoes, as well as hearing the laughter. "Oh, cool."

"The Ga-gi will take us out of Le-Wahi, and then we hopjump to a powermotor boat in the great sea." Kren explained the general plan as he moved ahead, letting out a whistling trill sound. He flashed a grin at Nati and darted ahead to a set of stairs to a long floating dock. Nati grinned again and followed him, looking around at the jungle scenery as she did so, thinking about the plan on how they would be getting to Ga-Koro.

"Watch your feet!" Three voices, two female one Kren's all warned, trying not to be too late as the Matoran saw that Nati was looking up, not down at the slightly curving stairs...with no rails like the boardwalk.

Unfortunately, the warning ended up coming too late for the universal. Eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, she realized she hadn't been looking where she was going, and her foot slipped downward, causing her to lose her balance, flailing a bit for a moment. Still, she leaned forward, where there were no rails, and just barely caught herself in time, though now she had a good view of the swamp and water down below.

The murky water of low tide bubbled and a set of fins flitted by under the human, teasing and waiting for her to drop in. The aquatic Rahi were disappointed however as feet pounded and then hands grabbed onto Nati, hauling her back up onto the stairs, and then up a little higher as Kren picked her up in a bridle style hold.

"Greatgood luck you didn't fall in that!"

"Mata Nui, is it alright?"

"We have some medical herbs."

The human was a little stunned, or dazed, realizing what had just happened... and that she had come close to getting wet and meeting the Rahi that lurked down there. Not a very good thought. Dazedly, she nodded at Kren, "Uh huh... th-thanks."

"I'm going to be a busy MatoranHero eh?" Kren remarked with a droll smile as he held the human, caring Nati down to the steps. Nati flushed slightly with a small, nervous grin, though thankful for the help. Yeah... now she knew why Turaga Matau wanted her to have a 'Matoran Hero.'

A hand caught Nati's as Kren lowered the human into a canoe, the blue Matoran behind her was much slender then the Le-Matoran. Though their eyes were a mix of yellow and gold rather than the reds and orange of the males thus far.

"So soft," one of the female Matoran remarked, touching Nati's shoulder.

Nati glanced at her, though didn't make a big deal over it. It was only natural for a different species to be curious of another after all. The human offered a friendly smiled, trying fix her loose ponytail. "Hi, names Nati."

"I'm Tumi!" the girl behind her said, smiling in that Bionicle way. A chirp from Kren drew attention as he hovered near on the dock, looking leery of getting in as well. There was a quick explanation in Matoran that happened too fast for the translation stone to keep up.

The human blinked, knowing that the stone hadn't picked up whatever it was that had been said from Kren. She guessed he was just leery because of the water, right? "Something wrong?"

"Blah," The green Matoran shook himself and gave into the coaxing and half jumped half slid into the canoe as well ahead of Nati.

"Where are we going Kren?" Tumi asked, grinning.

"Ga-Koro please Tumifriend?"

Nati glanced at the canoe for a moment as he said this. She looked back after another moment, recalling what had happened the last time she hadn't been paying attention.

"Kren said you're from another place?" Tumi asked as she maneuvered the boat out into the maze of mangrove roots.

"...yes." Nati answered with a nod. "And it's certainly a lot different than this place is, I can tell ya that."

"Tellshare?" Kren asked from the front where he was shifting around and making what might be called a nest in the supplies there, Tumi didn't seem to mind him doing so. In fact she was well used to the ways of the Le-Matoran and liked having her home based in this region.

"Huh... well, there aren't any swamps where I live, or trees like these." she answered. "People that live in a neighborhood don't really know one another, and there aren't anybody like Turaga either."

The two Matoran blinked, baffled, "No wiseold elders to lead you?" Kren asked as he sat up from his lounging.

"Odd," Tumi muttered.

"There are leaders," she replied before sighing. "Though some in the world aren't very good ones."

"Strangewierd," Kren said frowning.

"They're called dictators." Nati explained, shifting a little bit. "Once they come into power of a country the people living in it have no say in any matter."

"Sounds like the Makuta," Tumi frowned as she maneuvered the canoe around a larger root.

Nati shrugged. There was that name again. This Makuta person really didn't sound too good... not to mention whenever she heard his name she inwardly shuddered a little, almost feeling sick. Could that be a universal thing? 'Who knows,' she thought to herself. "

The Matoran where quiet for a bit, watching above in Kren's case, even from his half lounging spot in the bags he was still alert. Tumi was watching the water, or rather the roots and what was IN the water. Nati settled for looking around as well as they made their way through the water. Though she decided not to try and wonder about what might be lurking in it.

After traveling for most of the entire day, it seemed like a luxury to be able to do something other than sit in a canoe-ish boat or otherwise walk and followed your guides. Give or take standing on a beach and watching the waves was rather fun to do in Nati's case, having only seen a beach once in her entire life.

Kern yelped as he ran from the Ga-Matoran, getting splashed as he did so. "Hey! No wetspashing of this Matoranhero Tumi!"

"Somebody doesn't like wetness," Nati said in amusement, grinning faintly as she watched Kren running from the splashes of the female Matoran. Oh how tempting it was to 'wetsplash' the Le-Matoran as well.

"No he doesn't!" Tumi laughed as she watched the Le-Matoran hopping around on the rocks their boat was tied to, she was in the sea water up to her chest when standing, so it wasn't very deep at all. "You get the best reactions out of Le-Matoran."

Nati chuckled, rolling her jean legs up to her knees, "That so? Geez, it's too bad I didn't think to bring a squirt gun with me into this world."

"A what-what?" Kren demanded from his spot, having climbed up a fallen or drift-log that still had leaves attached to the branches.

"You know, oh wait no... a squirt gun," Nati held her hands in front of her, three fingers folded against the palms while the index finger pointed forward, thumbs upward in a gun shape. "A gun that shoots water. Lots of fun!"

"What's a gun?" Tumi asked, speaking up for both Matoran as they regarded Nati with that 'the human is being weird again' look that had cropped up a few times.

"A gun is... a sort of weapon." Nati had a feeling adding 'mass destruction' wouldn't be too wise. "Only a squirt gun is like a toy that's filled with water instead of bullets. Nobody gets hurt!"

"...oookay." Kren spoke, mimicking Nati's own tone and word from before. They clearly still didn't get it, but were willing to play along and pretend they did. Or Kren was at least. Tumi just shrugged and swam back to the boat to fish out some supply packs and came back to the beach to make a camp.

Nati didn't seem to notice that they didn't quite understand it. Right now she was happily focused on wading into the water, though muttering about how ironic it was that kids played with toy guns and how dangerous the 'real stuff' was... yeah, she wasn't making much sense to the Matoran.

"Kren go be useful and scout around," Tumi called as she started to gather up dried seaweed and smaller drift wood parts for a small fire. "Be our Matoranhero or we have to sleep in the boat tonight."

"Right!" The Le-Matoran hopped down and ran along the fallen tree's trunk to dry sand and promptly was lost from sight in the greenery of the under bush.

Nati laughed quietly, having watched him go before turning her attention back to the sea... and pausing on seeing a darkened shape flutter into view for a split second before vanishing. And all of a sudden she wasn't sure if she wanted to stay in the water anymore.

"Don't go beyond those shallow rocks Nati," Tumi called, as she glanced over, "This is a deep if little cove, so there might be Rahi sharks." she warned.

"Okay," Nati nodded, to show that she had heard, even though she was still staring at the waters warily. It could have been a shark like Tumi said. But still... something just seemed a little off. Being careful, Nati made her way as close as she could to the rocks, hoping to glimpse at the shape again.

A sound came from behind and up the beach, off to the right, the ferns burst apart and plant bits flew into the air as a hog like thing came racing out with a frightened squeal. The green form that came after it was Kren, but it was hard to realize that it was at first as the Matoran's expression was blank of a smile for once. He was intently focused, pulling a spear out of subspace and throwing it on one clean motion. He hit the animal Rahi dead center, racing up to it to finish off the beast as quickly and as painlessly as he could.

Kren pulled his spear free and hopped over the Rahi, his face lighting up as he beamed, "Dinner!" He announced, and then his smile faltered, "Natifriend...what...is that...?" He pointed with spear behind the human.


	5. Chapter 5

Nati blinked, her own smile from watching the Matoran catch their dinner fading as she turned back to the water. Due to it being evening, the shape was still darkened and hard to see clearly. But it was there alright. And the top of it was spiked.

Oh, and it was awful close for comfort. Nati tensed realizing just how close it was. "I don't think..." She didn't finish her sentence when the thing screamed bloody murder at them, so loud it would leave a ringing headache for sure. There was a splash, and it was gone from sight again.

"Nati get out of there!" Kren yelled, darting forward, losing his normal speech pattern in both worry as well as switching into that Battle-mode that all Koro-Guards had developed. The Le-Matoran was after all the only warrior in their three person group after all, and didn't hesitate to splash into the water. He was aware that Tumi was scrambling up the beach and away as he reached for Nati.

"Kren, don't!" the human shouted at the same time, having taken a step away from the edge of the rocks, but not far enough. Something of a hand, or webbed claw, slick with scales, had wrapped around Nati's foot and with a strong yank, she was pulled into the water, and quite possibly along with Kren.

A hand caught Nati's, and despite all of Kren's protests and dislike of water up until that point, he had also never really our right said he couldn't swim. And he could, most all Le-Matoran could in fact, as they did live over a swamp and wet land with nearly as many pools as dry land, much like Ga-Wahi did.

The Matoran pulled himself closer, bringing his spear around and sinking the harden Protodermis tip into the creature's shoulder, the same limb that had a hold of Nati. The moment she was free he used all of his Bionicle built in strength to haul the human not just back to the surface but to land as well.

Matoran may not be nearly as strong as Toa or even Kora, but they were far stronger then they looked.

The creature that had attempted drowning them, on feeling the bite of Kren's spear, had indeed released and shot off into the darkness of the deep waters. It was clearly a miracle that Kren had been able to get them back to surface, for Tumi had been right about the cove being deep. As soon as the broke surface and met the air again—blessed air!—Nati's lungs automatically heaved out seawater that had intruded during the surprise attack while she clutched onto Kren.

"Ah! Nati- not on my side, backshift so this Matoran can swim," Kren got out, putting a lot of effort into keeping both Nati and his own heavier body up enough. Though some part of the male's mind he was glad that, all things considering, Le-Matoran were like Ga-Matoran in that they were lighter in general than the other elements.

She did as was told, barely able to cough out something close to an apology. Nati focused on trying to make the swimming part easier for her friend.

"ARg!" Kren yelled in exasperation and frustration as he finally got his feet. Reaching back he hocked his arms under the human's legs so when he got free of the water she'd be riding piggy-back style. The Le-Matoran charged the beach, aiming for were Tumi was waving them up to the tree line and hopping that Rahi-monster was still too busy with his favorite spear to come after them.

Luck seemed to be on their side since nothing was breeching the waters anymore. At least... for now. In the meantime Nati grasped onto Kren and dared to look over her shoulder, while wondering at how all of that had just happened and how they had managed to escape without dying.

"Quickrun!" Kren yelled to Tumi, not stopping for any of the things that had been taken from boat to shore for camp. Their lives were far more important, and it wasn't like they were too far into Ta-Wahi to not be able to find food and fresh water yet.

As if sensing the fear coming from them, something in the distance behind them, out in the water, hissed and splashed faintly, but wouldn't be seen if anyone tried to look for it.

The Matoran caring Nati grunted softly as he ducked into the tree line, running as far as he could with the extra weight before slowing down and dropping the human off by Tumi. He muttered an apology but had already started scaling a tree to see if they were being stalked.

Nati dropped to the ground with a grunt, though said something in reply to Kren that sounded like 'no problem' or something along those lines. She coughed a little, trying to be quiet knowing that they could still be in danger from the... thing that attacked.

"What was that?" Tumi knelt down by Nati, helping the human sit up right, "That wasn't any big Rahi I know, and Toa Gali keeps the bigger ones off the shallow shelf of the reef..."

"...not sure," Nati replied after a moment of hesitation. This was kind of true after all, they hadn't gotten a good look at what it was. Though she had her suspicions about what it was the human wasn't sure if sharing them yet was a good idea or not. "I couldn't get a good look at the thing."

"Aaahhhh...Nati, Tumi sisters," Kren dropped back down, "We need to go everquick. We're being fallowed."

"Wha- we are?" Nati blinked, scrambling to her feet quickly. Now what?

Tumi nervously hid behind the Le-Matoran pilot and Guard member, looking around. She was, in essence, a civilian, able to hold her own really only when on a boat in open water, she could deal with water rahi for the most part, favoring challenges of weather.

But monsters?

Noooo... that was Toa territory!

"There should be a Firespiter Guard post near by right?" Kren scanned around again, guessing the approximant location of what he wanted, "Or a small Ta-Kini?"

"What's following us?" Nati asked him, noticing that Tumi was growing a little frightened. She was hiding behind Kren after all.

"It's coming from the direction of the bigwet," Reaching out to grasp the hands of both girls, Kren tugged both Nati and Tumi after him, "I couldn't sightsee it well, but this MatoranHero doesn't want to be rahibones."

That last word must have meant the same as the 'dead meat' phrase. Nati quickly chose that she didn't want to be rahibones either and made sure to keep up with Kren. Still, she prepared herself in case things got bad.

"Does anyone have a Toahero summoning disk?" Kren asked, letting go to pat himself over the small compartments in his armor as well as searching through his subspace. "Frag." He muttered as the Matoran realized he gave his away to another pilot that was doing an island-wide flight, and Tumi shook her head.

"If there is a post or Kini, there should be one there." The Ga-Matoran offered.

"And just where are one of these... places at?" Nati asked as they went, having an idea on what a post was, and perhaps even a Kini. Hadn't Kren talked about some kind of temple back in Le-Koro?

"Er, this way..." Kren said, distracted as he mentally calculated how far they had when this day before deciding to go camping and finish the trip after resting, as the days were much longer on Mata Nui then what Nati was used to.

The human had actually been thinking about the time difference not too long ago, before all the sudden action and distractions that is. Her body was still protesting about how long the day seemed to have been dragging. Still, Nati made sure to keep up with Kren and Tumi. They were getting farther and farther away from the water now.

Kren slowed to a stop, having let go of the other two, he back tracked to grasp something and lift it off a knot of tree's trunk. It was a long shell of all things, but not, having been turned into a horn with a strap of tightly braided leather to hold it up, "Hah! Firespiters' paranoia is sometimes a greatgood thing ga-gis!" He waved the horn to show them.

"Whoa," Nati did a double take at the authentic island shell of a horn. Shells this long existed, eh? "That's one cool horn. It works, right?"

Kren nodded, lifting the horn up but pausing as he wracked his mind for the Ta- alarm signal. Then promptly smacked himself on the side of the mask, remembering that he didn't need to know that code, and the Le-Matoran took a deep breath. The shell horn was a bit different then the wooden and Protodermis ones Kren was used to, but by the Great Spirit his people were masters of improvisation if nothing else.

Le-Matoran were also masters of music, most all had an innate knack for any instrument, up to and including alarms. So after a test sound, Kren played out the general Matoran distress signal as loudly as the shell would let him.

And boy, was it loud. One didn't know just how loud those hand-made horns could get until they were standing next to somebody blowing one at the top of his lungs. Nati winced, not expecting the loudness like she thought she would have. "...ah, yup, that thing works fine."

Tumi gave a nervous giggle as she nodded in agreement, "But won't whatever that monster is, that's fallowing us hear that too?"

Kren paused in his panting, "Er...yes?"

"Theeeeeeen, we should keep moving," Nati said, grimacing shortly when a far-off, gurgle-like hissing sound was heard. "Like, right now, maybe?"

"Quickrun ga-gis!" Kren motioned both Nati and Tumi ahead of him as he lingered to sound off the alarm again.

Nati didn't waste anytime in breaking into a sprint as best as she could, hoping that Kren would follow shortly. For now she had to concentrate on where she was going!

This forest proved to be not only smaller then the jungles of Le-Wahi, but had a clearer ground level away from the beach. Tumi stretched her legs to take the lead, scanning for...for... "There! Nati, run for the Kini." She pointed ahead and to the left, where a dark red and black structure stood out only because it didn't fit with the background.

"Right!" Nati panted, her direction changing on catching better sight of the structure ahead of them. Now they just had to make sure the kind of help they needed would be there...

Half way there, the human would suddenly find her self not alone with Tumi. If anything arms wrapped around her body, catching Nati and lifting her up off her feet. Tumi yipped and then gave a gratefull cry as she realized she was being carried by a taller Ta-Matoran like Nati was.

"Hang on!" The Matoran holding Nati warned her as he leaped into a lope and then run. He was bigger than Kren, made to support far more than the human's weight on top of his own. Not to mention he had a fresh set of legs and lungs to finish the run to safety.

Somewhere behind, a yell of pain was heard, Kren's voice.

These guys...' Nati's brain struggled to comprehend all of this. Her concern over the painful yell from a certain Le-Matoran. "Holy crap, that was Kren!"

"What?" Her carrier looked back and then barked out an order, "Tolame, Tahme, go back-"

"No!" A new voice cut in, female but deeper in a way, hitting at the size. A figure emerged out of the background, the size suggesting at first that it was a Toa, but a second look would show the being half the size Lewa was.

Nati swung her gaze around to stare at the new person, er being. Toa? No, this couldn't be a Toa, weren't they bigger? Her mind had an 'oh yeah!' moment. Kora! This must be a Kora!

Excitement didn't last for long though. Kren was still back there somewhere, and Nati oddly found it getting hard to catch her breath.

The Ta-Matoran holding Nati shifted her in his arms, a dark red mask peered down to meet her eyes before slowing to a lope and stopping in the Matoran/human sized building. The male side stepped and set the girl down, stepping half back to a window to watch the larger Kora heading straight for the darkness she sensed.

Nati staggered up to her feet to look out the window as well, frowning in worry for Kren. If that monster got to him... ate him up or something... she'd regret not being able to do something.

"What was that? And who's this?" A Ta-Matoran demanded, looking between Tumi and Nati as well as the window, while around him the guard unit were bristling and ready for a fight. All were larger than the Le- and Ga-Matoran, both a bit taller (proving Kern was, in fact tall for a Le-Matoran), but they were... thicker. Broader in the shoulders, chest and had heavier looking armor.

In essence, these Matoran were warriors.

"This is Nati," Tumi said, stepping closer to grasp Nati's hand, "She's a friend, Turaga Matau and Toa Lewa approve, but our friend Kren is out there. Please help!"

"Kora Storm said not to," The male that had helped Nati spoke. "But I think she meant it in not stopping until the Ga-Gi were safe."

That seemed like all the Ta-Matoran needed to hear.

Nati, for her part took a moment to observe the warrior-like Matoran but quickly diverted her attention back to looking out the window for signs of... well, anything. Be it monster or Kren, or the Kora... Her free hand kept clenching beside her thigh, agitated.

"You two, stay with the Ga-Matoran and... Nati," The unit leader said, already out the door as he and the other Ta-Matoran loped after their Kora to help.

Nati almost said a bad word, realizing she could do nothing now but wait. She glanced at Tumi and bit her lip. "Uh... do you think Kren'll be alright?"

"I hope so," The other girl looked down and back up, staying close to the human.

One of the two Guard members left to guard them smiled, rumbling softly, "He'll be okay."

The human glanced over at him. She figured these guys were used to actions like what was going on, and if this guy was so confident then... "Okay, you the guard. But if that monster hurts somebody..." she shook her head.

"What kind of Rahi was is?" he asked, shifting his grip on the spear in hand, a shield rested over his back while the other Ta-Matoran hand a short sword.

Her eyes traveled to glance at the spear at first before she replied, "Not too sure... all I could see from it was spines or something... I remember seeing it bleed when Kren hit it with his spear."

"It didn't look like any really native Rahi," Tumi said softly, looking around, "None that I know of."

"It certainly knows how to swim," Nati said sarcastically, squeezing some water out from her hair.

One of the guards awkwardly patted the human on the back, his attention diverting as his unit members came back. The green form of Kren standing out against their darker colors, while behind a bristling elemental was in the rear guard position. The Le-Matoran was supported on both sides, one leg barely the ground before lifting up higher and was stained a purple-ish color.

"Ow- ow- ow- fragging darkslagging inbred Rahiboned-" The pilot was saying colorfully as he limped along with help, getting grins from the Ta-Matoran.

All Matoran curses aside-Nati didn't take the time to ponder the new words-it was safe to say that she was greatly relieved that he was alive. "Kren!" Nati sprinted out of the structure toward them. "What the heck happened back there?"

"-fragmenting... Natifriend!" Kren leaned heavily on one of his helpers to wrap his arms around the girl but had to take back the support.

"Good thing you were going to Ga-Koro pilot." One of Ta-Matoran said, "But I think you will all have to teleport."

Nati returned the hug to her new friend, rolling her eyes at the sudden break of 'swearing.' "You freaking had us scared back th- wait, eh?" she turned to the other Matoran. "Did you really just say... teleport?"

The black masked Matoran nodded at the Kini behind Nati, "It can only teleport Matoran..."

"Natifriend is light," Kren said, looking back over his shoulder at the Kora, "...can a human go through?"

"Go through what?" Nati asked, looking confused and mildly wary as visions of vortexs and portals and beams from science fictions shows flashed through her head, along with people breaking into millions of tiny pieces when 'teleporting.'

"The teleportation system," Storm spoke as she finally turned around, no longer able to sense that strange darkness any more. "You should be just fine don't worry, it using elemental energies."

The human turned to look at Storm when she spoke. "You must be this Kora Storm person they talked about," she said, shifting her weight a little.

One red, white and orange eye winked at Nati as the Kora smirk, "The one and only. I deny everything's said, even if it's true just in case."

"I've only heard good things about you so far," Nati smiled warmly, liking this Kora already, even if it was the first she'd met so far.

"I think that depends on who was talking and their opinion of good." Storm knelt by the window to peer inside.

"That can be said again," A Ta-Matoran muttered, but smiled a bit as Kren was helped in. "I've set the system and sent the Ga-Gi ahead to alert the healers."

"Good work," The fire elemental nodded in approval.

Nati followed them inside, though still a little wary about the whole teleportation thing. "How's the teleporting thing work?" she asked Storm. "There's a receiver-thing where we're going, obviously, but..." she gestured a hand, showing she didn't get it completely.

"You'll have to ask the Onu-Koro techs of how the mechanics work," Storm shrugged, "But it's safe I promise." She laid a hand offer her heart light. It was larger than a Matoran's so the normally faint tri-pulse was just visible between her fingers.

"Okay then," Nati nodded slowly, pausing to shake damp bangs from her face. "I'll trust you on that, Miss Storm. I mean, Kora Storm." she grinned sheepishly.

The Kora smiled, "Fallow the Matoran, they'll lead you to the right room in there." Storm chuckled, "I'm too big now."

"You're just right Korahero!" Kren yelled before being taken out of sight around a corner.

Nati chuckled at Kren's loud comment before she nodded at Storm with a common human salute, smiling before turning to catch up with the Le-Matoran, wherever he was going now.

She was led to an inner room, covered with smooth, flat and colored rocks inlaid into the cooled lava walls. The pattern would take a minute to see, but it was a map on the flore of the whole island.

"Go with Kren and Orta," the Ta-Matoran behind Nati instructed, motioning to the center of the room where Kren was holstered up over his companion's shoulders in a fire-man's cary, "When I say, jump as high as you can, and try to curl up."

"...okay. Sure." and over she went to join Kren and the other Ta-Matoran, unable to help but glance down at the cool floor map of the island. So that's what it looked like. Once where she needed to be, the human waited for... whatever needed to happen.

Orta smiled at her as he crouched, looking back at his fellow before the single was given. He jumped, enough to clear the floor, and the energy of the system caught a hold of the traveler. Wrapping them in first a sense of harsh heat, and then it melted into something that was cooler, softer. If there was any remembered sight in being teleported, it would be a mix of colored lights and an impression of stars.

Waiting just long enough to see Orta vanish in the energy, Nati followed suit, wishing herself luck and jumping, finding that the same was happening to her as well. Grabbing her knees to her chest, the human could only stare in wonder, heart pumping faster and faster as the phenomenon went on around her.

So... this was what teleporting was like. She grinned faintly.

And then it was all over, Nati dropping with a thump onto the stones of a completely different place. Sunlight streamed into the open structure that was mostly a light blue and green color. Kren was complaining to the side as he was set down to the side.

The Ta-Matoran grinned despite himself, "Trust a pilot to complain when he's about to spend all his healing time in Ga-Koro!"

"It still hurts!" Kren said, convinced that he had actually broken something in his leg, not just sprained it, now that the adrenalin was gone.

"Ow," Nati muttered, gingerly unfolding herself and rubbing her now sore back that had hit the stone ground first. She blinked at the sudden sunlight, trying to block it out from her eyes until they adjusted. Whatever happened to it being evening?

"Natifriend," Kren was waving at her, pointing to where the sunlight was coming from, "Looksee, Tumi was right, sunsets at Ga-Wahi are pretty!"

"Oh yeah," Nati said, acknowledging the sunset for herself. The thing was bright! But yeah... it was pretty too. "That's real spiffy," she grinned weakly, rotating her head till she felt her neck crack.

"Come on Kren, I'll help you into a boat before I have to go back." Orta said as he helped the Le-Matoran up right again and supported him, but the taller male looked over at Nati, "You and Tumi will have to get him the last bio to the Koro though."

"Be happy to," Nati nodded, on her feet again and looking around, upward then down at the ground she had landed on. This whole teleportation thing had certainly been interesting, but now it was time to move on.

"You okay Natifriend?" Kren asked over Orta's shoulder at the human as he limped with the Ta-Matoran.

"Besides a bruised back and still in wonder over what just happened, yup!" was the reply from the grinning human female, fixing her hair back into a proper, if a little damp, ponytail.

"I'm sure the healers can help you as well," The Ta-Matoran said as he stopped at the exit, staring at the stairs with Kren. There was a muttered, "Frag," from one or both of the males.

"It's nowhere near as bad as Kren, so I wouldn't worry," Nati remarked, lightly drumming her fingers on her leg as if in thought for a moment before looking over, hearing the muttered comment. "Something the matter?"

"Sort of," Orta shifted his hold on Kren, lifting the grumping pilot up over his shoulders again. "Come on Ga-Gi, Tumi's bringing a boat around." he said walking down to the slight slope to a small dock, ignoring Kren who was making a face.

Nati followed down the slope, wincing faintly to herself. Kren kept calling her Ga-Gi... if she was right he was calling her 'water sister' or something along that. What water? She didn't have water powers... it would be funny if he ever found out about her plasma though. "How far's Ga-Koro from here?"

"We should be there before the sun sets, if Tumifriend dives as quickfast as she looks to do..." Kren cast a sideways look at the worried Ga-Matoran.

"If there's anything I can do to help, name it," Nati remarked to them, though she was eying the waters nearby. If that monster was here too... but nah, they had teleported! It couldn't swim from there to here in a few minutes, she hoped.

"Hop in first and catch Kren's leg," Orta instructed as Tumi kept the boat stable by holding onto the dock. "Hold the shine not the foot or ankle."

"You got it," Nati nodded, carefully going on and getting into the boat first. Huh, this was her first boating experience it seemed. Ah well. Certainly would be an interesting one.

Waiting until the girl was settled before kneeling down and shifting Kren, easing the Le-Matoran into the boat, "Careful, we don't want anything else breaking on him."

Nati nodded again, showing that she understood as she helped with easing Kren into the boat.

Once righted and getting hand holds, the pilot made a face as he did settle down. Even in pain as he was, Kren was showing amazing self control in that other then his muttered grumblings and Matoran curses, he wasn't doing anymore than that.

"These 'healers' where we're going... they'll be able to help you, right?" the human asked after a moment, watching Kren with a little concern.

"Oh yes," Tumi said behind Nati as she waved to the Orta and pushed off from the dock. Or started to, the Ta-Koro Guard reached out to grasp the edge of the boat and pulled it back. "...what?"

"Hang on," the red and black male said, reaching back to pull his spear off his back and offer to Kren, "Since you lost yours in the Rahi. And Nati," Orta added, offering her a short blade, "Here, you shouldn't be without a defiance, being completely organic on Mata Nui."

A guilty feeling passed through Nati, though she did a good job masking it from being seen on her face and accepted the blade, carefully. "Thanks... first time I've ever, ah, held a weapon before." This was, somewhat, true if people got technical.

"You can get a strap in Ga-Koro," Orta smiled, "It's not a big blade so it should suit you." He stood back up, letting them go as he stepped back.

"Well, thanks again," Nati called with a smile at the thoughtful Ta-Matoran.

Orta shifted and stood up attention, lifting a closed fist over his heartlight before doing an about face and marching back up to the small water temple to return to his home Wahi and duty.

Kren hummed and shifted, the given spear laying across his lap and braised on either side of the boat as Tumi started to increase the speed as they cleared the docks.

Nati watched Orta leave for a few moments until he couldn't be seen anymore before turning back to watching where they were going, holding her new weapon in her hands, which rested on her lap.

"It's not a bad thing Natifriend." Kren spoke up, watching the human. He shifted a little, trying not to wince as the boat bounced as they picked up more speed..

"I know that," she replied. "I've seen these kinda things before; my father had himself a collection of different blades before momma finally chewed him out and got rid of most of them... still, we weren't allowed to touch them."

The green Matoran tilted his head, the motion and expression on him once again made Kren look like a smaller Lewa almost. "Do you needwant training lessons Ga-Gi?"

The human had a thoughtful look on her face for a moment. "Yeah... that might actually be a good idea." She looked up and smiled on seeing Kren's 'Lewa' expression.

The Matoran grinned back at her.


	6. Chapter 6

It was night when Kren came back to his senses, blinking and shaking his head from the knock-out...stuff he'd been given. It didn't last long, only about an hour for a Matoran, long enough for the healers of Ga-Koro to set the broken supports in Kren's leg and ankle. Now it was braced and sitting in a fluffy pillow-like cushion. There was a special wrapping on the affected area, made to hold silver-water against the spot to speed the heeling process until one of the water elementals were alerted.

Kren shifted in his spot, smiling as he found himself in a reclined half bench half bed, starlight above and reflecting off the still water in front of him was the only light. Though what looked like a lightstone was covered over by a cloth, and the Matoran himself was in one of the partly open huts. More than likely because he was a Le-Matoran, and would be able to feel any breeze that came by.

Close by, more sitting on the floor and leaning up against the side of his bed-bench in mid-slumber, was Nati. Apparently she hadn't left his side when she could, wanting to make sure her friend was okay after what all he'd been through to keep herself and Tumi safe.

The Le-Matoran pilot shuffled and leaned over to look at the human, touching her arm, "Natifriend?" Kren muttered, shaking his head again.

Nati shuddered faintly before lifting her head. "Huh?" The human blinked slowly and passed a hand over her face, trying to see better. She focused more on the green shape moving nearby. "Kren?"

"You're MatoranHero!" He chuckled and tugged her shoulder, "Here, get up off the hardcold floor, come up with me?"

The drowsy girl mumbled something to herself and shifted, climbing up onto the somewhat bed her friend was on. "How's your leg?" she managed to ask.

"Can't feel a thing from here," Kren tapped a point on his thigh and made a sweeping motion outwards over the limb in question, "Down. And you Natifriend?"

"Tired," she confessed, though she understood about Kren's leg being numb. Nati yawned into her palm and muttered, "Your days here are _loooong._ "

"That they are," Kren agreed as he took a deep breath, pulling and lifting the girl up and over him to his other side, on the bed proper instead of the side. He grinned at her and tugged one of the blankets let to get it down from the backing and on Nati, "Matoran rest when every we're tired and need sleeprest," He waved his free right arm at the opened part of the hut to where in the not so far distance the lights in the center of the half floating village were visible as well as those Ga-Matoran still wide awake and working were.

Sometimes, very often, Nati forgot how freaking strong these Matoran people were. Weaving her hands into the folds of the blanket to adjust it a little, she made a thoughtful humming sound despite still appearing tired. "So when nighttime hits... it doesn't exactly mean you all go to sleep an' stuff. Izzat right?"

"Some do, but it's a time we stay close to the homeKoro," Kren hummed as his the mechanical parts of his body made tiny sounds before slowing down, "In the bad darktimes before the Toa, only Koro Guards stayed outside of village walls in the night. Or on them."

Nati furrowed her brow on hearing that, wondering what he meant by darktimes. "Before the Toa?" she repeated back to him. "What... what happened before them?"

Dimmed orange and red eyes met Nati's, Kren using the back of his free right hand to shield his mouth as he yawned, his other arm was resting on the human. "The Makuta was taking over our islandhome, he was infecting the Kanohi of Rahibeasts and Matoranfriends alike." He tapped his mask, tone and expression softening, "We got some back, some not, and some now and then are still taken from the Koros when the Dark One is trying to hurtkill the ToaHeroes..."

Nati looked at him with widened grey and blue eyes, feeling sickened and horrified at his explanation. Somebody that evil would really do so much to hurt these people? It was horrid. "That's really... it's really awful. I'm sorry."

Kren leaned down to tap his mask carefully to Nati's forehead, "It'll be goodright again, the Toa and Kora can... purify? the baddark of any infected Matoran, or rid them of infected masks."

Having been a little sleepy, Nati didn't figure to ponder the motion of his mask tapping her forehead... though it did give her a calming sense. "Oh... huh... well, that's good to know."

"How about you restsleep," Kren gave another yawn, this time making sure it was wide and then slumped back down next to the girl, "I am..."

"Mhm," the girl nodded in agreement, easing back and allowing her body to relax again. Though not before she sighed and mumbled gratefully, "Thanks for saving me t'day from tha'..." the human said a word, but it was mumbled and not heard clearly. But it hadn't been anything like 'monster' or 'creature.'

"It's what a Guard does," Kren said, even though he could hear the human's breathing had smoothed out in sleep.

Kren was snoring when Nati woke up, or...well yes. If that wasn't snoring than the author didn't know what was. The Matoran was more or less sprawled with his bad leg not moving, and somewhere in the night the two had moved closer so Nati was against Kren side to heat leach.

Nati blinked and few times, the action slow, though she could hear the snores from her friend beside her. And then she realized how close they were and blinked even more. One might have thought they were trying to share warmth in frigid weather or something. Carefully, trying to move or cause his leg any pain in the motion, she pulled away a little to sit up better and glance around.

The Le-Matoran kept on his imitation of a train, un-phased at Nati moving. There was some movement outside, like someone had just come by to check on them and was walking away. Nati snorted quietly to herself in amusement at Kren. She heard the movement and stood to her feet, quietly making her way around to the assumed exit area.

The Ga-Matoran, not Tumi but someone else was just about to jump into the water when she caught the movement out of the corner over her eye, "Oh! I'm sorry did I wake you up?"

"No," Nati assured the blue Matoran. "Not you... the snoring train back there did." and she smiled, showing that she was joking about Kren.

The Matoran giggled softly at that, flashing a smile back as she stood up again, fiddling her fingers together a bit nervous, "Are you a Kora?" She finally blurted out.

Nati paused, pulling her pony tail out of its hair band and stared at the Matoran for a moment before shaking her head, "Nope. I'm not..."

She wilted a little bit, "Oh... oh! Don't take that as a bad thing!" She waved her hands and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"It's okay," Nati said with a smile. "I don't think I'm Kora material anyhow."

"What do you mean?" The Ga-Matoran asked, tilting her head and backing up to sit on a chair, "You look like they did to start with."

"Meant that I don't think I'd be a good Kora," Nati corrected, hoping she understand that better. She smiled faintly. "If anything, I think I'd be better protecting my own home... uh, sorry, but I don't know your name."

"I'm Macku," The other girl said hopping back up again, "I'm a boat maker and one of Ga-Koro's Kohlii players."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Nati," said girl offered her hand out for a shake. "Though you might have been told that already..."

"Tumi mentioned it," Macku said, hesitating a moment before taking to the offered hand in both of hers, "Do you feel better? I heard you ran into a bad Rahi."

"Um... yeah," Nati got a little uneasy, and after shaking her hand once she pulled it back. "We did... I just hope it doesn't come back and hurt people."

"If it's infected it probably will try again until a Toa or the Kora take care of it... they don't give up once they find a place Matoran are." Macku said, shrugging and seemed to speak from experience with the mentioned trait.

She followed Macku, looking around at the village as she went. "He injured it with his spear," she shuddered at the fuzzed memories of what all happened underwater. "Pretty deep too if all that blood meant anything..."

"The pilot only had a Ta-Koro made spear though," Macku glanced back, "Did something happen to his?"

"...if you count the fact that the monster might still be swimming in the sea with a spear stuck in its shoulder, then... yes." Nati replied a little nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh dear," Macku couldn't help the giggle, "He'll be sulking over that for a while. Le-Koro Guards get really fond of curtain weapons."

"Oh, they are?" Nati smiled faintly. "Well, he got another spear... though it's probably not the same. What do I know about weapons and blades anyhow..." She looked around a little. "This is a real pretty village."

"Thank you!" Macku smiled, waving her hands at the Koro on a whole, "It's still dark out, but we're just to side of the main Koro center. Turaga Nokama didn't think you'd want to be up in one of the elevated huts."

"I'd like to meet her sometime," Nati replied, recalling how rushed the arrival to the village had been with Kren's wound.

The Ga-Matoran looked around as they headed to the somewhere brighter lightstones of the village center, "I'm sure she's up and around somewhere around here. There's Toa Gali," Macku pointed at a tall shadowy form standing hip deep in the water beside one of the larger floating platform, that had to be nearly the size of those platforms in Le-Koro.

The human paused for a moment, trying to study what she could of the elemental in the dark lighting, "Gali. It's a pretty name," she murmured. It was kind of neat how re-arranging the letters would give one the name 'Gail' instead, she thought to herself.

"Turaga Nokama says it means deep running water I think..." Macku frowned a little and then shrugged, "To a Gali lives more in the Koro then the other Toa do."

"Really? Neat... course, this place is full of water when you think about it," Nati remarked, looking at said water. "I don't think I've ever seen this much water in once place... not where I lived anyway."

"Beyond the outer wall is the bay and sea farther beyond that." Macku turned Nati a little to point out the semi distant wall that had to have been made out of the smaller trees from Le-Wahi, linked together to shelter most of the inner bay and Ga-Wahi from ocean storms as well as keeping the larger and more dangerous Rahi out.

Nati gazed outward at the interesting ocean wall that provided the village with protection. "Wow, just how big is the sea out there anyway?"

"Very big!" The Ga-Matoran laughed and pointed upward to one side, where only a part the brown and tan planet took up that part of the sky, "We're on a water moon after all!"

"Seriously...?" Nati blinked a few times. Moon... a water moon? A sickening feeling came over her as she wondered where in the universe this moon was located... surely it was far from Earth if her planet didn't even know about it. Heck, they didn't even know about the planet she was staring at!

"That's Bara Magna," The Matoran explained, "We're on Aqua Magna and the other moon is Bota."

Nati stared around at the beautiful early morning sky, thinking to herself about the planets and moons. Who would have ever known that places like this existed? Or that there were other types of evil and darkness out there?

"Are you okay?" Macku asked, tilting her head at the human and looking up at the desert looking world above that she had known all her remembered life.

"Yeah," the human nodded. "It's just that, for all our time we've lived on our planet... we had no freaking clue that there were other beings existing out there, you know... in space."

"If we can live on a moon, and the other supports life like Bara, why not other Magnas far out there?" Macku shrugged, not overly worried about worlds out in space. In honesty she was more interested in Nati herself as well as an upcoming game that would start as soon as the sun was fully up. She kept glancing over in the direction of the playing field that was just visible in the more dim light as they walked.

"Your thinking about that kind of thing is different from humanity's," Nati sighed, shoving her hands into her pockets. She followed Macku's glance over at the neat looking playing field. "...cool. What kind of sports are played here?"

"Oh, all kinds!" The Ga-Matoran brightened up, "There's some that are popular sports that are more a part of individual villages, like out canoe races and water ball, but the whole island loves Kohlii!" The blue and gray colored girl's poster changed to being very proud, "We're having a game this morning too!"

"Oh really?" Nati smiled at the Ga-Matoran's excitement, "Sweet! I'd like to see how it's played. Got any championships and stuff?"

"Yes!" Macku shivered in excitement, beaming though, "We're playing against Po-Koro, they're the best at the sport since their more... crazy about sports then even I am. But there is a championship of the island for Kohlii and a few other sports."

"Kohlii huh?" Nati smiled. "Neat name for a sport. It must be pretty popular."

"That's an understatement," Macku giggled.

"Oh boy," Nati chuckled at that, wondering if there were some hard core fanatics on the island that loved their game with a passion.

"We're not all kohlii-heads," Macku said in an assuring tone as the two had to hop up onto one of the larger floating platforms that made up the center of the water village. It's hub for social life and several Matoran were doing various tasks from chatting to waving, and cooking. There were brown and tan colors visible mixed in with the blue and green hues of the girls, the new type of Matoran standing out more in that most were two heads taller.

Nati paused for a moment to take in all that was going on in the center of the village. It certainly was lively. She did spot the few Matoran that stood out a little, though. "Let me guess... are those Po-Matoran?"

"Yes..." Macku trailed off, looking intently at each of the brown, orange, or black masks of the tall males. She hummed in a pleased blush when spotting one Po-Matoran that was bouncing a ball off his head, to knee and back up.

The blush didn't go unnoticed by Macku's companion however. Nati blinked, followed her gaze to the male Matoran, and then grinned. "A good friend of yours?" she asked, nodding toward the ball-bouncer.

The girl was promptly flustered, golden hued eyes widening before she waved her hands as if in denial. "I, um... ah, that's Hewkii!"

"Hewkii? Nice name. Fits him, doesn't it?" Nati grinned in amusement at Macku's reaction. She glanced over the Po-Matoran. "I can see why you like him."

Macku couldn't get out a denial since she really _did_ like the tall, strong Matoran very much, so much that her whole village knew as well as most of Po-Koro too. To say resulting games with Macku and Hewkii playing against each other was interesting...was an understatement that will be reveled later.

Nati began to chuckle and shook her head. "Alrighty then, why don't you introduce me to him?" she said, looking over towards the friendly looking Matoran. "...man he sure is talented with that ball."

The Ga-Matoran beside the human made a squeaking sound and then launched in to motion. Mack was swift and light on her feet as she darted ahead like she was going to tackle the mech- Bionicle- male? What was the right term...

"Goodness," the human blinked as she watched her new friend rocket off toward Hewkii. Well... that hadn't been expected! Certainly was interesting though. Nati smiled and started after Macku.

Hewkii seemed have an extra sense, pausing his exercise to glanced over and had just enough time to drop his ball and catch Macku before her momentum, no matter how much smaller she was to him, carried them both over the edge of the platform with a splash. A male voice yelped and a girl's giggled after a moment.

"Macku!"

"Got ya this time Hewkii! ...told you swimming lesions were a good idea."

Their little act of playfulness didn't seem to catch too many people's attention other than amused smiles. It was obviously expected around here. Nati made her way over to the edge and looked over at Macku. "So, is it normal for you to slam into people like that in greeting or not?" she asked jokingly.

"Nope!" Macku chirped, happily splashing the other Matoran that was floundering but in a semi-coordinated way, enough to kept his heavier body up enough so that his head wouldn't go under.

"Yeah I'm so lucky," Hewkii said with a mock growl as he got a hold of the platform with one hand to brace himself, and swiped at the Ga-Matoran with the other, getting a happy short scream.

Well they certainly seemed like a happy couple! Nati couldn't help but laugh and watch as they splashed each other. It was nice seeing playful innocence for a change, especially from last night's terror in the water.

Hewkii needlessly pushed Macku up, but had to get help from her and another Po-Matoran to haul him back up. The Kohlii player coughed to clear his airways.

"Mata Nui Macku," The other male, this one brown and black instead of lighter colors of Hewkii, "Why don't you two just make little Matoran already? And what's that?" He asked belatedly seeing Nati before nearly invading her personal space to see who and what she was.

Nati had been grinning inwardly on hearing the comment about Macku and Hewkii, so she was pretty much startled. The human shuffled backwards with a, "Wha, hey!" putting her hands up. "Watch the personal space there, buddy." Nati said, semi-nervous.

The Kanohi-Ruru warring Po-Matoran hopped back, huffing indigently, "Slag, loud little thing isn't it?"

Hewkii reached over and smacked his friend, "Stop that."

Nati rolled her eyes broadly at the Po-Matoran's comment and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "You would be loud too if someone up and stuck their face into yours without warning."

"Normally he's the one doing that," Macku rolled her glowing eyes from her spot sitting on the edge of the platform. "That big annoyance is Hafu, Hafu, this is Nati, she's on a quest I heard!"

"Are you planning on dragging the Company along after?" Hafu complained, "It's bad enough Takua does that so much..."

"Kharzani carver," Hewkii muttered, reaching over to smack his darker colored teammate up side the back of the head. "Stop acting like you don't like the quests."

"This is my first ever quest," the human admitted shamelessly. "Normally there aren't that many, er, quests to take back home. I always did thought it would be fun though... well, guess I should've been more careful with what I wish for." She grinned at the Matoran.

"Real quests aren't made for those with a dimmed heartlight," Hafu snorted, rubbing the back of his head, only to yelp as Macku used his nearer leg to pull herself up. "Hey!" He Protested and had to almost pick the smirking Ga-Matoran to get her to let go.

Nati tilted her head slightly at Hafu, a small grin still on her face after seeing what Macku did to him. "You're just a bucket of sunshine, aren't you?" she said, sarcastically.

"He's not as bad as normal honestly," Hewkii rolled his eye this time as he draped an arm over his friend's shoulders, and shook his head, "You should see him working."

"Oh yeah? What's his job?" the human asked. Didn't he say something about a carver or something?

"I am the best carver of Mata Nui," Hafu puffed up in pride, smirking a bit, "Stone to glass, I can do it!"

"Yeah but we're here for the game," Hewkii pointed out and pointed to the main land. "And you have trouble with ice."

"And sea coral." Macku couldn't help adding as Hafu grumbled.

"Pretty cool." Nati said to Hafu anyhow, interested. "So, how's that work exactly? Can you make something just by looking at a picture?"

"Well, for some commissions are generally laid out on a data pad, but for many things I can see just in here." He rapped the side of his head with his knuckles before Hafu sniffed the air, "Ooo...is that rura fish I smell?"

The other Po-Matoran tilted his head back a little to sniff as well, "Hmm...spiced. Lets get some food while we can before the game." Hewkii aroused, draping an arm around the other two players, but the way he held Macku closer to him said that the arm over Hafu's shoulders again was an excuse for the one about the female. "Come on then, Nati was it? You should eat too, though we shouldn't have too much."

"Eh?" Nati turned from staring off into space, rather, at the water, in thought. She blinked and grinned slightly, and hurried after them. She totally noticed the way Hewkii held the pretty Ga-Matoran and giggled inwardly. They were a cute couple. "And yes, Nati's my name. Technically it's a nickname, but I like it."

"Sounds right," Hewkii jugged, "Sounds familiar too... like one of the older words. You'll have to see Matoro or maybe even Takua to see what it means in Matoran."

"Matoro would be better," Hafu added, "He's the Language Master after all. Kora Tala and Turaga Nokama both have Kanohi Rue."

Matoro. Yet another new name to keep in mind while visiting this island. Nati blinked. "Wait a minute, 'Nati' is just a nickname my little brother created when he was two years old because he couldn't say 'Natalie' correctly. It wasn't taken from any sort of old language... as far as I know of."

"Words down have to be taken to mean something in another language," Macku pointed out.

The human girl finally shrugged faintly. If her name held any kind of near-meaning here, then cool. She looked around as they walked, still awing over how amazing the village was.


	7. Chapter 7

 

After getting something to eat, the small group of Matoran and one human had soon made their way over to the playing field, where Nati supposed the game of Kohlii, or whatever it was called, was going to start. Macku had been right about it being popular, that was for sure- lots of Matoran had come to watch the game.

Most were blue and green shaded Ga-Matoran, brown and tan of the Po-Matoran and then surprisingly white as well sporting the third team from Ko-Koro. Macku and Hewkii left Nati with the now awake Kren, how he got to his spot was a mystery but Nati's apparent guide and guard was perched up on a shelf and it took two Matoran to boost the human up to join the pilot.

"Here Natifriend, isn't this the best right view off all!" Kren said, sitting around to keep his bad leg from any presser. The male smirked at something he was holding back, and making no show of hiding he knew something.

"... yes," Nati said after glancing out over the field. She was wrestling with her hair tie, trying to smooth out the locks of un-brushed hair back into a simple, durable ponytail. She glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what is it?"

"What is what?" Kren asked back in an impressive mask of innocents.

"Nuh uh," Nati replied, finally getting a, somewhat, tidy tail of hair done before she sat down beside him. "Don't think about doing that with me, Kren; I have a little brother who tries to pull that off all the time. You're hidin' something."

The Le-Koroian pilot beamed back at her, winking one red and orange eye, "Why tell when you'l see soon enough Ga-gi?" His gaze ticked down and slightly to one side, scooting over that way on the ledge as the not large areana filled out, the players Nati met and didn't all seemed to have vanished.

Nati hummed warily, though willing to go along with Kren's excitement. Over what, she didn't know, but switched her attention onto looking out at everything and everyone down below in the arena. She noticed three 'goals', one for each of the teams it would seem.

The was a deeper sapphire shade of armor drew attention, as the tall slender form that was Toa Gali stepped into the clear space below. Kren hummed in pleaser before seeing the second Toa that was pacing in after, he was larger in form than both Gail and Lewa, and would have been taller than Lewa if he wasn't bent over in a permanent hunch.

The human sitting with the pilot leaned forward a little bit to get a better look at the new Toa. Both him and Gali she had yet to meet face-to-mask, but still... Brown and tan. This new one was of the colors of the Po-Matoran. That meant... "Is that the Toa of Stone, Kren?"

Kren was grinning again, nodding rapidly, "Goodright guess! That's Toa Pohatu!"

"Eh?" The stone giant in question turned, looking back as he picked up his name, but hand to turn, bright eyes scanning and spotting the two that stood out. Kren since he was green and Nati being human, "Oh this must be the off worlder I've been hearing about."

"..." Nati sat back down in her seat, unable to figure out why she suddenly felt shy. Perhaps it was because this dude wasn't a mere Matoran like those she had met—or short for that matter! He was pretty large. "Dude's got good hearing," she said to Kren with a small grin.

"Have to have," Pohatu chuckled, tapping the side of his head before looping an arm around the smiling Gali, "in order to keep up with Lewa or hear out icy brother!"

The guy seemed pretty nice, Nati noted with a smile. Icy brother... now what was the Toa of Ice's name again? Oh well. She'd find out sometime. Still, Pohatu's hearing must have been much better than any human's. There were tons of other voices in the air after all.

"Well, they are Toaheroes," Kren pointed out, "They have to be alert even when their not... if that makes goodsense."

"It does," Nati said with a smile. "Guess if you're that big of a hero you need to have hearing better than a dog's..."

"A what-what?" Kren tilted his head, and then sat up more, "And I am a Matoranhero!"

"It's an... an animal. And I know that! I was talking about the Toa." the human answered. "And yes, you're a good Matoranhero too."

"Praise," Gali said softly to her brother, "Something Air and Fire elementals alike can live off of." she nodded at the preening Le-Matoran, as there was no other word for it. The water elemental chuckled as Pohatu let out an unrestrained laugh.

The Toa of Stone rose, tilting his head to look up at Kren and Nati, had his back not been hunched over Pohatu would be almost looked both in the eyes. "Come down off there little ones, just as good of a view with us, and less chance of falling off. And maybe Ga-Gi here will help with that leg, oh brave Matoranhero!"

Nati glanced at Kren with a smirk at the comment 'oh brave Matoranhero.' "Well, shall we? Mister Hero?

"Yesyesyes." Kren nodded, and by his instant replay this seemed to be a part of his plot from the start. Gladly pushing off the ledge with no hesitation and into the waiting hands of the Toa. He was place in Gali's lap, promptly started to preen again before Pohatu came back for Nati.

"Oh, GEEZ..." Nati said, mostly at the Le-Matoran's plot he'd made from the beginning; amused at Kren pretty much. She shook her head, looked over and pushed herself off the ledge as Kren had done. Hey, he'd done it with a bad leg! It was easy...

Pohatu's hands were harder than a Matoran's, and Lewa's for some reason, but they still have that living warmth, and his claws were thankfully pulled back as far as they could go. The Toa set Nati down on the wide stone shelf that would be a step but for the Toa it was something comfortable to lean against.

"Think out Ko-Tu will show up?" Pohatu asked again peering over the 'rail' to the box below and to one side, "There's Turaga Nuju..."

"The elder might have come with Kora Tala instead." Gali pointed out, "More so if Kopaka is hunting."

The little-next a Toa, yeah she was pretty little- female human, though listening to the conversation, also took the chance to look around at the view once more of the sports field. She didn't spot this other Turaga they had mentioned. Taking a guess, it must have been the ice one if she had anything to go by. But who was Tala again...?

"Someone call me?"

Nati turned her head to see who had spoken. It was another Kora-Kora Tala! Yeah, she remembered now. "Hi," she greeted the elemental with a smile.

The Rue warring Bionicle did a sweeping, over the top bow, grinning, "Hiya," Tala said, her accent different than the others, not quite like something Nati knew but close enough to know at the same time... The truth was that Tala was a language master like Matoro was and was matching her speech pattern closer to Nati's.

Nati's smile grew even more. She could already tell that she was going to like this Kora a lot. And not just because Kora were once human like her, Tala had a friendly air to her, "...nice mask." Nati blurted, inwardly chuckling at her choice of words.

"Kanohi Rue," Tala said, shifting her speech patter again to match Pohatu's, or rather the Po-Koro accent, "Mask of Translation." The white elemental switched back easily, "So! If you're not a Kora, dat' means you're 100% human, an' that makes ya somethin' to worry about."

Kren huffed, about to protest that when the Kora smoothly continued.

"Or rather, how ya' got here."

"Lewa couldn't find a gateway where he found her." Gali explained to the others, looking down at Nati and tilting her head. "At least none that were open once he started searching."

The mentioned 100% human shifted her weight in an uneasy fashion. Apparently their version of a gateway was different from the living mass of a vortex she knew of. She returned the glance up at Toa Gali. "... well maybe I got here some other way."

"Possible but we Kora are supposed to be the gate keepers on this side." Tala said, thinking.

"What if it was another force? Something else, maybe... I dunno, you don't know about?" Nati replied. How would they take it anyway, if they found out about the whole other system of gateways and Universals?

Tala cocked her head to one side, looking intently at Nati as Pohatu shock his head, paused and considered again. He rumbled and growled naturally as he thought, "There's that big ring thing, but not one's been able to use it. And there's been no air ships since the ancient days according to the Turaga. But we're learned anything is possible!" He added clapping a hand lightly on Tala's head, playfully turning her mask and getting an instant teenage like spazznedic and dramatic reaction out of the Kora.

Nati smiled faintly in amusement at that, though she did cock her head. "What big ring thing are you talking about, Toa Pohatu?"

The stone giant considered the direction before he waved a hand in the direction of the massive Kini Nui in the semi distance, "It's in one of the deeper chambers in the Kini. As far as I heard Turaga Nokama, Tala or Matoro haven't had time to stay and translate much on the walls other then it may be used for transport, yet not link to our teleportation system...?" He trailed off a little to look at the Kora.

Tala gave herself a shake once her mask was firmly back into place, "I haven't really looked at it."

"Huh." Nati gave a thoughtful shrug and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her faded jeans, "Might be something to look into, maybe." She offered a small smile at Tala once the Kora had fixed her mask.

"You never know," The Kora allowed shrugging as she stooped to press her mask against Kren's, The Matoran seemed a bit put out at being ignored and now hummed in a cross of a blush and pleasure at the sudden attention.

There was that mask pressing thing again. It was awful cute watching it happen, Nati decided, and couldn't help but giggle at the male Matoran's pleased hum at the attention from Tala. "Yup," she said in answered to the Kora's comment.

"The question now is, what is your destiny here?" Gali asked as she rose, glancing around at the crowd as it looked like some of the Po-Matoran were trying to get girls to play on the field with them now that the field was free. She smiled as she noticed Hewkii and Macku were talking.

Granted, Hafu looked like he was trying to get close to Hahlii but he only got a stick to the top of the head and she walked over to the two Ko-Matoran as Hafu sulked over to his teammate.

"...probably to help out in some way," Nati said quietly, shrugging her shoulders. She kept her gaze on watching the Matoran rather than making eye contact with the Toa. She wasn't sure how anyone here would react on finding out what she knew; what powers she controlled. Her mind was thinking as if this were earth. Surely there Universals wouldn't be accepted. Maybe captured and studied for experiments, but never accepted. Who was to say the same wouldn't happen here?

Best to wait a little longer.

With her not looking however, Nati missed the two exchanging looks and Gali making a hand gester at the Kora. Signaling an order without speaking.

"Well, I donna know about ya' lot!" Tala announced jumping up onto the rail like ledge, "But I am not passing over Mata Nui's luck to the Ko-Koro." She pulled one of her shields out of subspace and pointing the end at Pohatu. "I shall win two rounds against ya'!"

"Hah!" The Toa leapt to his feet, "And shall win back Po-Koro's honor."

Nati turned back, saw their stance and grinned, having a feeling another game was about to start. 'Oh, this'll be interesting.' she said to herself.

"Hehehhehe." Kren snicker, tugging Nati closer to him as the Kora spun on one foot and let lose a pulse of elemental power. The air temp dropped as slope of ice formed, just enough for it to supports her.

Tala dropped her now extended shield onto the ramp and boarded down to the field with a cackle. Pohatu happily just dropping down the levels, though he was careful not to make any harmful tremors.

The human just stood there, her blueish grey eyes wide in awe on seeing Tala demonstrate her elemental power—ice. It was awesome! Almost as if it came out of nowhere... which it kinda did, "Dude... cool!"


	8. Chapter 8

 

"I told you, you can play Natifriend!" Kren said laughing at the human as he bounced one of the Kahlii balls on his head a few times.

"Didn't that airhead tell you the balls were much lighter than normal stone?" Hewkii asked trotting over to the cluster that was made of Kren, Nati, Macku and Hafu.

"Yes," Nati answered with a smile, having looked away from Kren's ball-bouncing. "I used to play a sport, called basketball." She grinned even more. "So much fun, but I had to quit when the age category stopped at twelve."

"What's the game like?" Hewkii asked in keen interest in any new sport, that it was an alien one only added to the appeal.

"Two teams," Nati went into explanation mode, "Each protecting their goals, which are hoops that hang a few feet over head. To score you have to shoot a basket as they call it-throwing the ball through the hoop. And you don't kick it but bounce," and she made a demonstration with her right hand.

"Sounds like a Le-Matoran game," Hewkii ducked and caught the ball that Kren playfully launched at him.

"It's a lot of fun," Nati continued. "And can get pretty intense sometimes, but still a whole lot of fun." She grinned with a sigh. "Man, but it's been awhile since I played it..."

"Then you should have some fungames here...?" Kren offered, loping and arm over Nati's shoulders as he looked around the afternoon slowness of the village. "We should get some tastygood food and more for the trip?" He looked around the group, tilting his head and wondering if the Po-Matoran would want to come as well.

"Sounds like a good plan," Nati said with a smile at the Le-Matoran. "... hm, how long's the trip to Ta-Koro anyhow?"

"By what way?" Macku asked, "Boat not long at all, but you need a coating of Silver-water in your chest before you can go to that Koro Nati." She tapped her own chest and then nodded at Kren, "So will you."

"Do what?" the human blinked, looking confused before recalling what Silver water was. She grimaced, trying not to show the bit of uneasiness on her face. The thought of putting strange water lined into the lungs wasn't too... appealing. "Oh. Oh yeah."

"It's not a bad thing." Macku assured, "Most Matoran get it, and it's just a coating to filter the harmful gasses. Ta-Matoran are pretty much immune on their own."

"Well, let's just say I'm exactly thrilled about the coating of the lungs part," Nati replied with a face. Though a tough fighter when she needed to be, the Universal was a tad bit squeamish about select things. she couldn't stand images of a human's insides, almost vomiting once. "... how do you know it's safe for humans?"

"Kora Deni said so." Macku pointed out.

"Okay..." And 'Kora Deni' was a doctor? Probably not. Nati absently flexed her fingers on one hand, used to playing with her plasma when bored. But not right now.

"The elemental does have the Kanohi of healing," Hewkii pointed out, reaching over to pat Nati on the head as Macku led the way to her home now instead of the recovery rooms Nati and Kren had been in the first night.

"Oh good. If I get sick we'll just go to him for healing," Nati said in a joking manner, playfully batting at Hewkii's hand as they followed Macku.

"Or hurt, water is a healing element after all." Macku chirped, gigging as she grinned at Kren and back to Nati. "Come on!" She jumped off the dock and into the waters.

"Oh, goody we're gonna go for a swim," Nati said in a sing-song voice, looking over the dock at the water below.

It wasn't that far of a jump, in fact just stepping off and into the water. There was a shifting and then the heaver form of Hewkii body flopped with as much of a lack of grace as he could manage, and as much of a splash as he could at the same time.

"Crosswired." Kren muttered.

'Apparently they have their own word for "stupid"' Nati thought with amusement. "Well hey, at least he's gain enough to follow his girlfriend even into the water." she remarked with a grin.

"And sinking," Kren pointed out, grinning as Hewkii did sink but then came back up enough to paddle rahi-style to the floating cabin made out of living plants like several others around not attached to the docks.

Nati chuckled at the Po-Matoran's determination in the water. At the moment she really didn't care if her clothes got sopping wet, since getting wet seemed like something that would be happening often in this village. So the human grinned and dove in, canon-ball style before surfacing and swimming after Hewkii.

Kren made a face as he looked down at the water and then scanned around for a non-wet way, but made an aggravated sigh. The Le-Matoran flashed a grin at the background giggles of the watching girls before diving into the water. Oddly much of the same way Macku had.

In fact Kren was doing just as good as Ga-Matoran as he swam under Nati and Hewkii, staying under for a fair time though not as long as Macku.

Nati swam toward Macku's floating home, her strokes even though nowhere near as fast as the Ga-Matoran or even Kren. For fun she even dipped down and opened her eyes to get a look at the underwater world real quick.

Her guardian Matoran waved at her from under the human, Kren was still protecting Nati even in this. The human female smiled at him, careful not to open her mouth as well, before heading back to air again. Her lungs couldn't handle the pressure underwater with no oxygen for very long.

She was joined by Kren at the edge of the porch like dock that ran around Macku's home, and Hewkii leaned over to pull Nati up, "There you go."

"Thanks mate," Nati grinned as she was pulled up onto the interesting floating 'porch.' She'd forgotten how enjoyable swimming was. And the little event the other night didn't really count as 'enjoyable swimming.' "You know, I'm still amazed at how you people can live in homes that float on the water like this," she commented, gesturing at Macku's place.

"Mate?" Hewkii asked baffled.

"And living up-tree wasn't fun enough?" Kren asked as he easily pulled himself up and gave himself a full body shake.

"Term of expression, and a quote that I was... quoting," Nati answered to Hewkii with a small smirk.

"Natifriend is being strangeweird again." The Le-Matoran chirped as he playfully put an arm around the human to draw her into the open part of Macku's home where they could sit in the sun and dry out and stay warm.

Said human smiled proudly at this. "What's strange to you makes sense to me at least."

"That can be said the other way around too," Macku pointed out as she came out a hatch in the floor of the floating home, showing that there was a lower but not flooded part of her home. The Ga-Matoran had a large bowl in her arms as she sat down with the other three, passing jerky to Hewkii, while she and Kren favored the fruit and greens more than the purplish-red meat.

"Yeah, true that," Nati remarked, observing before picking out some of the fruit for herself, feeling refreshed after the swim to Macku's house. "Your place is awesome, Macku."

The other female hummed softly in pleaser at Nati's words, "Thank you, I'm just glad we don't have to worry about drifting like in the Dark Times."

Nati smiled, sensing Macku's pleasure, before blinking a little. "Dark Times?" she repeated, sampling some more fruit for herself.

"Just like the term says," Hewkii said as he contentedly chewed on his jerky, "It was a time long ago, when the island of Mata Nui was cut off from the rest of the Matoran Universe but the Makuta."

Nati made a soft sound of understanding. Apparently it had been some sort of large event in their history. "So, if I'm right, this Makuta dude is the bad guy, right?"

"Very badhorrid news," Kren agreed, snorted and gave a growl that came from his own personal experience with fighting the Shadows.

Nati glanced at him, hearing the growl. Where did that come from...? Oh well. These people had already proven to be nothing like humans. "I don't think I even wanna know what all he did," she said.

Macku tapped the bottom of her mask thoughtfully, "You should talk to the Turaga, or even Takua!"

"Hey that's right," Hewkii perked up, "Takua _is_ the Story Keeper after all! And he's just as good at telling as the elders... but more fun."

"Oh really? I wanna meet this guy," Nati grinned before popping a bite of fruit into her mouth and chewing.

"He should be back in Ta-Koro by now," the Po-Matoran judged, taking a moment to consider, "He was in Po-Wahi an eight-day ago looking for something, heading underground after and then back home."

"Good thing we're going to Ta-Koro next," Nati said. She inwardly laughed on thinking that the name of the village sounded almost like 'taco.' But she didn't say anything aloud and continued to eat.

"Hmm..." Kren hummed in sudden interest from movement, inlayed into the floor in random spots were what looked like windows, letting Macku see what was underwater without hopping in. But it was a school of fish that attracted the pilot's attention. "Greatgood eating those are..."

"Sweet, a skylight made for the floor!" Nati exclaimed with a grin on finally taking notice of the window.

"Ga-brakes," Macku explained, smiling, "So we can see if there's any infected Rahi in the waters, mostly we Ga-Matoran used them for that reason before Ta- and Po- Koro helped us build the great outer walls around the Koro."

"Ahh. Nifty thing that," Nati nodded, her gaze on the window showing the underwater world. "Would love to have something like that... only I don't live near the water, so forget that."

"You don't?" Macku asked startled, "But you're, well, female."

"Ga-Gi," Kren tilted his head, and then shrugged, "But then Mackufriend, not all of our Ga-Gi here on our islandhome live here in this Koro all the time."

"No, I don't," Nati answered Macku simply, shrugging her shoulders. "I live at the base of a small mountain with my family. Unlike with you guys here, us females are all over the earth. We're not really, um... connected to elements or anything, so there's no need to be near the water."

"Water is needed for all life forms, mostly." Macku pointed out as she fished a few berries and looked around thoughtfully, "I think we need to go to stores to get supplies."

"Of course it is. I meant being, like, always near a body of water, like the sea. Water's pumped all over the place underground for drinking and other purposes," Nati answered.

"Strangwierd." Kren muttered thinking about it, shrugging after and then giving himself another shameless shake.

"Hey, it works." Nati said. "I dunno what I'd do without it..."

"You seemed to have done well here," Hewkii pointed out.

"Well here it's different." the human replied. "Back home it's just as different and other things are needed to carry on with our daily lives. I'm not exactly doing that here, though."

"Everyone is strangewierd in their own way as Toa Lewa says," Kren grinned at them all

"Well, he's probably right in saying that." Nati said with a smile.

"Natifriend, you still do not look goodfine." Kren worried, rubbing the young woman's back as he crouched down beside her.


	9. Chapter 9

 

The Le-Matoran, Nati, Hewkii and Macku had left Ga-Koro after seeing the Toa of water, and now the group were making their way to the village of fire. By land this time. In fact the three Matoran and one human had been traveling most of all the day, and as evening started to finally set in, as well as the heat steadily increasing since mid-afternoon, they were stopped at a what Hewkii said was a 'way-station' for water and rest before making the finally push to Ta-Koro. Though he also said they could stay here too and go before day the next day.

"I'm havin' trouble adjustin' to this heat is all," Nati mumbled out, cupping her forehead in her palm. She had no idea how hot places could truly get! And already she'd drank all her water, and even half of Kren's supply out of desperate thirst. Of course she'd know how much of a need water was when enduring large amounts of heat, but she hadn't thought of it to be this much of a priority. "I'm gonna be fine after I get more water. That's the key right now; plenty of hydration," the human nodded to herself.

"Don't you mean hydration?" Hewkii asked with a puzzled frown, looking down at the human before offering his canteen of water. As a Po-Wahi native, thus a desert dweller he was the best out of the four to be able to endure the heat. "Maybe we shouldn't take you to Ta-Koro after all if you're having this much trouble Nati."

Nati took the canteen slowly, frowning at herself. "...yeah. That's what I meant. Crap." And she lifted the canteen to her lips, drinking hungrily. When she was done she answered, "No, no... I wanna go there. I'm sure I just need to adjust to the heat is all. There are places back home with this kinda temperatures and people live there... I think."

"What kind of climate are you from?" Macku asked between slow sips of her own water pack, it wasn't a gourd but more like a pouch that easily settled on her back. Being a part of the water element.

"It's not this hot." Nati mumbled. "It does get rather hot in the summer time, but not so hot that it's unbearable. Plus there's air-conditioning to help out when you're at home."

"I have an idea of what to do." Hewkii announced before stooping to sweep up the somewhat shorter human into his arms.

Kren hopped up with a protesting, "Ki'ea!" the word only translating in Nati's mind thanks to the stone on her chest as something like 'hey' or 'oy.' Basically a half word for attention as Kren attempted to 'save' Nati from the bigger Matoran. "Put her down rockcracker! Natifriend can walk."

The human smirked blearily at the whole thing. Though she didn't protest at being held off the hot ground. "Aww, c'mon Kren," she said playfully. "He's not crushing me or anything..."

"Besides we can move faster," Hewkii paused to looked down, though kept walking at the same time. "No offence Nati."

"None taken. I know when I'm the slow poke of the bunch." Nati grinned in reply, putting her arm around the Po-Matoran's neck to hold on easier.

Kren looked a bit put out, at least until Macku tapped her mask against his, "Where do you wishwant to go Hewkii?" He asked, after all, the Le-Matoran was supposed to be the guide of the group.

Nati blinked a little but didn't voice anything about where they were going. Let them figure it out since they knew this place better. By now she'd decided the whole mask-pressing thing was like their way of a kiss. They did have sort of... well, oddish mouths after all.

"Onu-Ta Wahi highway," Hewkii said shifting Nati as he walked, "the heat won't be as bad and I'm guessing Nahi can get used to it better that way... maybe. It's worth a shot at the goal huh?"

"I'm for it if it means less heat," Nati put in her two cents once he was done speaking, absently raising her hand slightly.

"More or less, but there's no heat waves." Hewkii pointed out.

"Well, that's better at least. Better than nothing." the human replied.

"It's a lot better," Macku pointed out as she skipped over beside the two, "The heat waves give any Matoran trouble."

"Heat like this would give mostly anybody trouble," Nati mumbled to herself.

"Except firespitters and rocksmashers." Kren said jerking a thumb in the direction of the village and then poked Hewkii's side before darting away and ahead.

"...oooof course." Nati replied with a sigh, watching Kren scurry on ahead of them.

The blue Macku slowed so she was behind Hewkii, shifting her pace to try and stand taller and still walk at the same time. She was frowning as the Ga-Matoran scanned around, stretching out her senses as even Matoran could pick up on elemental energy or...

"Something wrong?" Hewkii asked, pausing.

"What's going on? Why'd we stop?" Nati asked after blinking and clearing her head of fuzzy thoughts.

"Did any of you feel a void in the Ta- energy?" Macku asked frowning.

The Po-Matoran holding Nati shook his head, "Nope, I didn't, Kren?" He got a negative from the pilot before shrugging, "It's probably nothing, Come on Macku the entrance is ahead."

Nati frowned, her brow furrowed as she thought about what they had said. Void? What did she mean by a void? A void in Ta-energy was what she had said... "Hey, Macku? What's this about a, uh... void?" the human asked.

"It felt like there was a patch suddenly missing out of the background elements." Macku shook her head, "It was strange but Ta-Wahi is flooded with the fire element so it was covered back up."

"That kinda sounds like what's been going on in Ko-Wahi." Hewkii reluctantly said as he belatedly remembered over hearing his village's Kora and Toa talking about it.

Nati frowned again as she processed this. "How long has this been going on? And... what exactly do you mean saying a patch was missing from the background elements?"

Hewkii spoke up first, "The easiest way to explain is here," He set Nati down and waved at the heat waves around them, "It's warm right? Warmth is basically Ta- energy, its all around and apart of the background. When your out on the reef water is all around and air is all around."

"Okay," Nati nodded, standing once again as she wrapped her mind around his explanation. "But what I don't get is how did Macku 'feel' that there was a change? A void, she said."

"All Bionicle can sense elemental energy Natifriend," Kren came back, and he had his new spear in hand, "Some Matoran stronger than others, and ToaHeroes can on a bigvast scale of a Wahi." He spread his free hand out and waved it.

'These guys are, once again, more than meets the eye,' Nati thought to herself. All she felt was a bunch of heat around her. But she could relate, if slightly... being a Universal meant she could sense, well... SOME things, but barely at home. Nothing really big happened there... but here it was a whole different story.

"Natifriend?" Kren asked, touching the human's shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied with a small shrug. "Just thinking to myself about it is all."

The pilot arched up an eye ridge and shook his head, "That's not selfthinking Natifriend, you're worriedscared about something."

"Meh, just thinking about stuff at home. Human stuff," Nati replied, waving a hand. So easily did she shrug off his comment about being worried. She just hoped it was convincing for now.

"Never try lieing to a Le-Matoran Nati," Hewkii said from behind as he patted the top of her head.

Nati shrugged as she glanced toward Hewkii. "Who said I was lying? I am thinking about home, you know." And this was true actually.

"Natifriend, you're not telling the hole truth either." Kren pointed out, pausing as Macku yipped only to stiffen along with the taller Po-Matoran. In fact, Kren yanked the human behind him as Hewkii did the same with Macku before pulling out a set of hand held and hocked blades.

"Alright, I felt that one," Hewkii announced, "Something's out there."

Nati bit her lip, almost drawing blood since they were so cracked and dry, despite her raid upon nearly everyone's water. So the Matoran knew something was out there... but was it good or bad? "Oh, don't let it be another monster..." she muttered.

"It's moving," Kren said as he took a few paces ahead of them and to the side, stretching his senses of both those of the body and how Bionicle picked on elemental energy, "And... oh frag."

"Frag?" Nati repeated, frowning worriedly at the swear word. For Bionicle at least, "Okay, what does that mean? What is it? What's out there?"

"Whatever is out there is getting closer and started to movie to the Onu- Ta- highway." Hewkii muttered, glancing back as he backed up, forcing MAcku to do the same and in a moment they would make Nati as well, "And there's two voids."

"Greatgood fun," Kren pitched in, the first truly sarcastic tone he's used.

"So there's two of whatever's out there," Nati deducted as she moved back as well. "...do you even know what it is?"

"Can't see past the heat wave," Hewkii shook his head, "But I think we're going to find something out." He added nudging the Ga-Matoran back again.

"We just can't go anywhere without some sorta surprise waitin' for us," Nati mumbled sarcastically, crossing her arms as she tried her best to look out for whatever it was that was out there.

"Welcome to Mata Nui!" Macku announced before turning and pushing at the human's shoulder to get her to turn as well, "Time to run again!"

"No arguments there!" Nati replied, sprinting forward. Here we go again with the running from danger...

Yellow and gold eyes flicked to the side at the human as Macku took the lead, knowing better where to run as the two males started to lope behind them, "You seem to attract a lot of attention Nati."

"Not intentionally!" the human panted, sweating like crazy as the adrenaline kicked in once more.

"Quickrun Natifriend no complaining!" Kren's voice drifted forward to the two girls, he was just behind and debating on asking Hewkii if he thought he could carry Nati, thus letting the group rund faster. "Ta-Koro's outer Suva's should be near..."

'I am running,' the human thought to herself. Even if she wasn't at her full speed due to the heat. It didn't help that they had no idea WHAT they were even running from, so the suspense grew even more. It didn't help that the sound of something racing along a few feet beside them, hidden in the steamy fog, could be heard by now.

A roar sounded from ahead as first Macku and Nati broke through the steam bank first, it was deep and carrying, the tone starting low and lifting higher. Even though the 'speaker' was well out of sight, the sound should have made the group hitting the brakes, but the Ga-Matoran grasped Nati's arms and steered her to where the sound was coming from.

"Come on!" Macku yelped, "Fallow that!"

"What the- O-Okay!" Nati replied shortly, forcing her legs to continue moving in the new direction. She would have asked what they were now following, but there wasn't time while they were being hunted from behind. So the girl would just have to trust the Matoran.

Hewkii loped after the girls with two hocked blades still in hand, "Not that far left, a Ta-Koro Guard post will be in front of us!"

"Where's Kren?" Macku demanded as she looked back over her shoulder and noticed the lack of the other male.

"Oh, not again," Nati groaned under her breath as she panted, still running. All of this seemed to have happened before—the running, the adrenaline rush, Kren not following and getting hurt...

"Kren is the only Guard member of us, he'll be fine," Hewkii hocked his weapons on his forearms, much like a few Le-Matoran as well as Toa Lewa had done. In fact he probably got the idea from them, it freed up his hands so the Po-Koro native could grasp and lifted the human up into his arms. Only his experience with being an athlete and having the Po-Matoran strength kept Hewkii from stumbling or fallowing over.

"He'd better be," Nati replied, making no objection to being carried. Though she was all for taking care of herself in dangerous situations, the heat was still having a strong disagreement with her... though she was surprised at how long she'd been able to go without passing out. That was an... interesting improvement.

Once more it seemed, she and her new friends were going to be saved by the Ta-Koro Guard, as a low station came into view. Macku was fumbling with her subspace when a high, warbling yell sounded behind them, Kren announcing them in a way that head a few heads popping up into view before the taller Ta-Matoran leapt out with weapons at the ready.

Hewkii basically dumped Nati into the open door way after Macku with a rushed, "Be back!" Before he spun to join the line of defiance. Yet all that was seen behind them was the edge of the 'fog' bank as everything whent still.

Nati, still panting, having landed on her front side down, lifted her head from the ground. She winced, betting she had new bruises, but that didn't matter by now. Looking out the door way she went quiet, waiting to see what their hunters had been from the start... and if they'd show themselves.

The Matoran shifted and tensed before the bank was broken, but it was only Kren jogging out sideways and then walked backwards before turning and easily ran over. "They're missinggone!"

"What?" Nati muttered from her spot before scrambling to her feet, blinking with a perplexed look on her face. The creepy hunters were gone...?

The pilot twitched and growled lightly as he trotted over to confer with the leader of this outpost, along with Hewkii they put their heads together and spoke too rapidly for Nati's translation stone to keep up. But there was enough to know they were trying to figure out what those creatures were, and that this wasn't the first time they have be spotted/sensed.

Nati frowned and, after a moment of glancing at Macku first, walked over to Kren and the other Matoran to see if she could get any information she understood from them.

Two Ta-Matoran eyed here, they seemed to be the most distrustful, or those who openly showed it thus far were the fire elements. One tilted his head at her, "Could they be after the Rahi?"

Kren snorted, "Natifriend isn't the reason firespitter."

"...yeah." Nati frowned. Mentally though, she had her own thoughts on that matter. "And don't call me that. I don't call you guys robots, now do I?"

"We need to get to the safety of the homeKoro." Kren added moving to plant himself beside Nati in an unspoken show that he was her protector, keeping out his spear in hand as well. "We need to speaktalk to Jaller."

Ta-Matoran guards straightened at the name, exchanged looks before nodded. One spoke up, "Very well pilot, we'll see you safe to Ta-Koro's bridge."

"How far's that from here?" the human asked, glancing at the Matoran.

"Not far," Macku said coming up behind Nati, "The lava rivers are just starting."

"Lava riv-... oh wonderful. This I'll have to see." Nati commented.

"Never seen a hotflow before?" Kren asked, smirking a little as he stayed close to Nati. The Le-Matoran kept his spear out even as Hewkii slid his weapons back into subspace, come to think about it only Kren and the few Guards that escorted them had weapons out.

"Course I haven't," Nati replied, as if it were the simplest answer in the world. "Dude, anyone back home that lives near LAVA are either insane or scientist-people. It's already risky living near a volcano, too."

"We have several on our island." A Ta-Matoran pointed out as he tilted his spear to the main volcano they were under pretty much.

"I've noticed..." the human sighed, "Must be a whole lotta lava from them."

"It's why this is called the Ta-Wahi, the fire region." Kren pointed out smiling as he.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Nati said bluntly. She glanced around the steam. "...you're sure whatever that was is gone?"

"They headed to the fire fields," The Le-Matoran pointed to their right and nodded, "Wishhope they don't know better and get a longfar ways in before the ground firespits."

"I'm not entirely sure what you just said, but I'll agree with it," Nati said, gesturing with her index finger at him for a moment. "So... when do we get moving again? I don't know about you, but getting to this village of fire sounds like a much safer place than wandering around. No offense."

"Over that ridge," The Ta-Matoran Guard said, pointing with his spear at a ridge of lava rock. Beyond the ridge was that simmer in the air that meant a wave of heat was rolling past but not 'aiming' at them. "Hewkii, Kren, you'll have to carry the females," he added giving Nati and Hewkii more than a glance, studying the human more openly, "The bridge will have to be raised up and will hurt the Ga-Gi's feet badly."

Nati just watched the guard right back, lifting a brown eyebrow. Being studied like some sort of alien wasn't exactly... common. Then again, she was kind of an alien to them. "Seen enough yet?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip and sighing.

"Firespitter is estimating how long you have in heat," Kren said tugging Nati closer to him, speaking softer, "We are Guard Natifriend, we have to guess goodright to be sure those under our protectionwatch will survive. I am Le-Koro Guard, and I am your MatoranHero." He paused and farther explain to make the young woman understand, "You are under homeKoro Le-Guard by order of wiseold Turaga Matua, so your safety is all KoroGuards' duty."

"...oh. Okaaay..."the human replied, still trying to make sense of his first part. "Well, that's good to know I guess."

"Now, can you upclimb to my back Natifriend?" Kren asked pausing just before they climbed the ridge, he nodded at where Macku had happily hopped up onto Hewkii's back and pressed her mask against his head for a moment.

"No problem dude," Nati commented faintly, moving around the Matoran and hopping up, clinging to his shoulders. The heat was beginning to effect her again and her movement was almost sluggish. She didn't notice Macku pressing her mask against Hewkii in affection.

The Le-Matoran shifted to be sure she was settled, one of the Ta-Koro Guards had trotted ahead to ignite a hand held flare and wave it in a set, by the time the rest of the group made it to him, Nati was just in time to see the long, wide and slow moving liquid rock river. It was more of a half lake that stood between them and the outer walls and bafflements of Ta-Kora.

The Village of fire rose up like some castle, though the outer walls were as different as it was familiar. First of all it blended in with both color and texture of the volcano it was against, being made of native Wahi rocks and massive slabs of cooled lava. But the outer wall, like that of Ga-Koro was made so that guards could either peer out from the safety of cover or, as most were, walking the higher level for better visibility.

"Whoa..." was all the human said, the single word all that she was able to say to sum up how awed she was at the entire sight of the 'village.' "That's not a village, that's a fortress. A big fricken' awesome fortress... yeah."

The two Ta-Matoran seemed to puff up at her words, there positions full of pride in a way Kren had taken a few times when also taking pleasure in her awe. They loved their home Koro and as Nati would find, the whole island knew and admired the Ta-Koro Guard that were sought after for good reason.

"Now I really can't wait to see the rest of it," Nati commented with a smile, resting her chin on Kren's shoulder. "How big is the village?"

"Big-big!" Kren announced, grinning as he shifted again, "Look down Natifriend, and the hotburning river." He nodded down, holding Nati's leg with one hand only so he still had his spear out for image to stay impressive for the Ta-Matoran guards.

"Oh, I see it," Nati assured, looking down and over. "Believe me, I see it alright..." She grimaced at the endless waves of heat. "... why do you still have your spear out?" Nati mumbled, coughing faintly.

"I am a Le-Koro Guard, and the Guards here would think me crosswired for not having it out." Kren explained as he stepped up the edge of the cliff face they stood on so Nati could see the bulges becoming larger before a near perfect line of flat stones as wide as a Toa was tall. Those 'stones' were lifting up above the lava river at a steady and impressive pace but not too fast, as they did it showed hot big the bridge was hidden under the river.

"Ahh... so it's not just for show," Nati mused, her gaze lingering over the edge of the bridge as she looked down at the lava river. "Oh, what I would give for a camera..."

"A what?" Kren asked, tilted his head to try and look at the human on his back as they waited for the rising bridge.

"Camera... to take pictures with." the human replied. "You know, snapshots. Stills of a moment or thing to remember by."

"Ah, a recorder," The pilot shook his head, "Last ones were destroyed."

"Okay..." somehow she felt that 'recorder' might have meant different things to each of them but who knows.


End file.
